Questions

• What are the different effects of city shrinkage? In what main fields do they occur: demographics, economics, social life, and urban form?
  
  
• What urban and regional policies, programs and strategies have been successful in addressing the problem of shrinking cities?
  
  
• What are the respective roles of public and private initiatives? How can they be articulated? Who are the key-actors playing a role in the redevelopment process of shrinking cities?
  
  
• What are the key-factors linking globalization and city shrinkage? Can approaches of regional governance be generalized or are they locally/regionally specific?
  
  
• Which assumptions, concepts, values and practices of planning and development need revision in view of the shrinking cities phenomena? In other words, is there a need for a new vision and a shift in paradigm for urban and regional planning and growth?
  
  
• What are the policy implications of shrinking cities for urban and regional development? What is the role of local, regional and national policies and programs?