Afterword: Urban possibilities in times of crisis

This chapter sets the preceding discussions of urban possibilities in the contemporary context of the COVID-19 pandemic and, more broadly, of crisis and rupture. With the grounds and forms of urban life thrown into question, there is ever greater need to explore such possibilities critically in their geographical and historical contexts. Addressing the perspectives and insights offered by this volume’s focus on literary texts, and on their distinct forms and affordances, this chapter considers the intertwining of literary and material worlds, the ways in which imagined possibilities for cities are constrained by material forces and processes, and modes of uncovering and expanding senses of urban possibility. Particular attention is given to the concept of utopia for examining how lines between the possible and impossible are constructed, and how the co-ordinates of the possible may be questioned and challenged. That is against notions of a ‘return to normal’ and the injustices and inequalities that they entail. Utopias, it is concluded, should be seen as a matter of urgency for how they offer ways of approaching the present critically.