Key Themes

The shrinking city phenomenon is a multidimensional process, comprising cities, parts of cities or metropolitan areas that have experienced dramatic decline in their economic and social bases. Thus, urban shrinkage is a factor that widely addresses the scale of metropolitan regions and requires policy-makers to redefine traditional paths of regional governance. Urban decline and the loss of employment opportunities are closely linked in a downwards spiral, leading to an out-migration of population.

The symposium places shrinking cities in a global perspective, setting the context for in-depth comparisons of selected cities considering specific social, economic, environmental, cultural and land-use issues. It can be observed that, especially in the US, planning practice is to a large extent concentrated on either managing urban growth or tackling redevelopment in a fragmented – not a regional – way, despite the fact that in many metropolitan regions urban shrinkage occurs. In this regard, the information exchange provided by the project will be vital for a redefinition of regional governance in the US and also in the other participating countries via comparative research on shrinking cities. In addition to thorough investigations in various metropolitan areas of the US, experiences from Mexico, Brazil, Germany, France, Great Britain, South Korea and Australia will be involved.