The COVID-19 pandemic is a profoundly urban crisis. The vast majority of the millions of reported cases worldwide are concentrated in overcrowded neighbourhoods and informal settlements.

This article is part of a series in which leading experts reflect on emerging trends for cities seeking to address hate, polarisation and extremism.

One of the first countries to register a Covid-19 outbreak, South Korea, flattened the curve in stunning fashion. It registered over 22,000 cases, yet fewer than 400 deaths at the time of writing.

At the United Nations, the world’s longest Zoom meeting is underway as presidents and prime ministers meet virtually amidst a pandemic that has killed almost a million people, an economic depression with no modern parallel, and a tide of polarization and division that threatens the social fabric in many countries.

The digital economy has finally arrived.

Even before the tumultuous arrival of COVID-19, many parts of the world were suffering from dangerous polarization and division.

Robert Muggah (apparently an old Scottish name, though he is Canadian) has set up two think-tanks in Brazil, where he is based: the SecDev Group focuses on the digital economy and cybersecurity.

Related concern about state brutality also propels two expert advocates up the list: Ilona Szabó de Carvalho (5th), who set up the internationally-influential Igarapé Institute, which champions citizen-led security, and the American prison abolitionist

As we show in our new book Terra Incognita, COVID-19 is exacerbating multiple forms of inequality within and between countries and cities, and raising fundamental questions about the future of urban living.

Brazil, a country in the world’s top 10 in population and GDP, is in the midst of three destructive crises.