Oltre la pandemia. Ripensare territori e città per una civiltà della cura

History sometimes presents unexpected crossroads that, under the surface of an apparent contingency, are the result of long-lasting processes that suddenly take shape, marking a watershed line. The COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences really seem to represent one of these events. Relating to that the debate involved not only the domain of spatial planning but also the ways of reading and interpreting the relationships between cities and territories and underlying development models. It is certainly a propitious moment to solicit necessary, open, and transversal reflections, both on a thematic and disciplinary level, at a time when urgency makes us perhaps more sensitive, free and creative in grasping with dramatic contradictions as compelling challenges for the future. The contributions collected by this special issue of CONTESTI draw a polychrome map of reflections, born from the urgency to read, understand and interpret the historical moment we are experiencing but also to go "beyond the pandemic", not only in a temporal sense, but in relation to challenges that it poses to cities and territories and to the discipline of spatial planning and urban design.