The road to “local green recovery”: Signposts from COVID-19 lockdown life in the UK

Abstract

Responding to the conspicuous absence of reference to the local scale in national and global discourses of “green recovery” from COVID-19, this paper articulates a series of interlinked research agendas united by a focus on what a “green recovery” might involve at a local scale within the context of the United Kingdom. We argue that geography as a discipline is particularly well placed to contribute to theoretical and practical framings of “green recovery” as manifested at and through a range of scales, including the micro (individual), meso (household), and what we term “meso+” (neighbourhood). Specifically, we signpost what might be considered “green shoots” worthy of urgent empirical investigation – shifts in everyday life and practice catalysed by COVID-19 and with the potential to underpin longer-lasting transformations towards socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable localities.