Relational cities disrupted. Reflections on the particular geographies of COVID-19 for small but global urbanisation in Dublin, Ireland, and Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

This paper looks at the particular geographies associated with the COVID-19 outbreak through the
lens of cities that are products of relational urbanisation. This includes small but highly globalised
cities, such as financial centres or hot spots of politics and diplomacy, which are usually situated
between different political, economic or cultural systems and their boundaries. These cities
experienced strong growth due to internationalisation and a dedicated politics of extraversion.
Our argument is that such places are unusually affected by the current lock-down, illustrated by
two empirical cases, the cities of Dublin, Ireland, and Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Both have
experienced striking growth rates recently, but now suffer from disruption. Their development
trajectories remain unclear, since a return to the ‘old normal’ seems unlikely, and the emergent
‘new normal’ calls for adaptation towards more state involvement in areas hitherto governed by
the market. The paper addresses possible alternative geographies for both cases.