1162 | 888 | Is there a link between counterurbanisation and the COVID-19 pandemic? A systematic review of recent studies in CEE countries implementing the life-course approach.

After 2020, numerous studies have explored the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migratory movements, particularly in the context of internal migration. One of the popular conclusions is the emergence of new residential mobility to non-metropolitan areas. At the same time, few studies address the social determinants of this process in the spatial context of CEE. In particular, little is known about the characteristics of individuals and households making the decision to move from metropolitan areas to the periphery as well as their motivations and decision-making processes arising from their life experiences, in comparison with Western European and American examples. It is therefore difficult to determine whether this pandemic counterurbanisation is a temporary phenomenon or the nucleus of a new trend related to lifestyle change, digitalisation and increased social mobility, for which the pandemic was merely a catalyst._x000D_
The talk is a presentation of the results of a systematic review of research on both counterurbanisation and the COVID-19 pandemic using a life course perspective with a particular focus on Central and Eastern European countries. The selected papers indexed in the Scopus database were evaluated and compared according to PRISMA 2020 guideline. Conclusions on the importance of pandemics and counterurbanisation in the life course of individuals were synthesised. Potential linking elements between the two phenomena discussed were also identified._x000D_
The review represents the first phase of a broad research project which aims to explore counterurbanisation in post-pandemic Poland from below, as it is narrated in life stories of the residentially mobile from large cities to non-metropolitan, beyond suburban (rural and small town), areas.

Karol Korczyński
Institute of Sociology, Department of Social Sciences, University of Wrocław

ID Abstract: 888