Challenges Facing the Delivery City Phenomenon after the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Due to the “untact” society caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, urban functions have grown increasingly reliant on the mobility of things rather than human mobility, giving rise to the “delivery city phenomenon” with real significance. This study explores the necessity to comprehend the demands and social views of delivery city inhabitants (“actors”) to future urban planning, recognizing that the phenomenon of the delivery city has a significant impact on the shape and structure of modern cities. To do this, a grounded theory-based approach was used to evaluate keywords in Korean media articles and thoroughly code the content of actors’ contextual interviews and shadowing data. The results indicate that the delivery city phenomenon has changed the geographical sense of actors and the role of each space, and has urban planning implications such as in the establishment of social and spatial infrastructure, the institutional basis for technological development, and the call for sustainability. This study is meaningful in understanding modern cities centered around delivery services, which have gained global prominence, and it can contribute to sustainable urban planning by deriving urban tasks for this new phenomenon.