Local government responses to cope with the consequences of Covid-19 An analysis of territories' resilience

Covid-19 has changed our daily lives and territories have had to adapt accordingly to cope with the effects of this pandemic. This article focuses on the local policy responses of cities and counties in the European Union to cope with the socio-economic effects of containment. Using a qualitative study based on 34 case studies, we analyze what types of responses have been made and to what extent these types can be explained by the characteristics of the territories. We highlight that the magnitude of Covid-19 mortality explains the greater or lesser responsiveness of local communities. The analysis of policy responses shows several structuring trends in the way governments have responded to the Covid-19 crisis. We observe a prevalence of emergency measures, designed for the short term, responding to the first identified effects of the pandemic or emergency medical and health measures taken by the States to deal with it; these are mainly measures to support the local economic fabric, which were expected to have immediate effects. Moreover, only a few measures can be related to a long-term objective. Finally, some measures are medium-term but may not be sustainable, whereas the pandemic has sometimes led to innovations and the effects of these innovations could remain beneficial beyond the end of the pandemic. We show that there is no "territorial logic" in the adoption of proactive resilience measures. In other words, there is no differentiation in the implementation of proactive local policies between urban and rural territories.