Face-to-Face and Central Place: Covid and the Prospects for Cities

This contribution looks at how great-city working life and business are increasingly oriented towards the activities in high-added-value trades 'opaque' markets, where face-to-face interactions still a vital part of what they offer. It argues that whilst pandemic has undoubtedly hit hard, its longer-term impacts should not be over-stressed: world cities look set for continued dominance, centrality scale will smaller conurbations, prospects more peripheral locations may as positive proponents ex-urban flight might anticipate.