Urban Shrinkage in Eastern Germany
Urban Shrinkage in Eastern Germany

Author: Florian W. Bartholomae

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13:

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This paper questions the widely applied parallelism of demographic and economic development in characterizing urban shrinkage in Germany, and argues that the usage of population change as a single indicator leads to incorrect policy recommendations for combating urban shrinkage. As the cases of several Ruhr cities (Essen, Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund) and East German cities (Erfurt, Rostock and Magdeburg) prove, urban economic growth can also be achieved thanks to the substantial presence of modern industries and business services, and despite declines in population size. The serious shrinkage of Halle, Cottbus and Schwerin is primarily due to failures in the post-industrial transformation process. Recent policy measures strongly oriented towards slowing the downsizing process of population (via urban regeneration measures to hinder suburbanisation and low core urban density) do not address this major problem effectively. More active industrial policy measures are required in these East German shrinking cities to create a competitive manufacturing sector (endowed with new high-tech firms) and to boost its growth interdependence with modern local services.

Shrinking Cities in Reunified East Germany
Shrinking Cities in Reunified East Germany

Author: Agim Kërçuku

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-10-03

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 1000686221

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The book explores the relationship between the shrinking process and architecture and urban design practices. Starting from a journey in former East Germany, six different scenes are explored in which plans, projects, and policies have dealt with shrinkage since the 1990s. The book is a sequence of scenes that reveals the main characteristics, dynamics, narratives, reasons and ambiguities of the shrinking cities’ transformations in the face of a long transition. The first scene concerns the demolition and transformation of social mass housing in Leinefelde-Worbis. The second scene deals with the temporary appropriation of abandoned buildings in Halle-Neustadt. The third scene, observed in Leipzig, shows the results of green space projects in urban voids. The scene of the fourth situation observes the extraordinary efforts to renaturise a mining territory in the Lausitz region. The fifth scene takes us to Hoyerswerda, where emigration and ageing process required a reduction and demolition in housing stock and social infrastructures. The border city of Görlitz, the sixth and last scene, deals with the repopulation policies that aim to attract retirees from the West.

Back to the Postindustrial Future
Back to the Postindustrial Future

Author: Felix Ringel

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2018-03-26

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1785337998

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How does an urban community come to terms with the loss of its future? The former socialist model city of Hoyerswerda is an extreme case of a declining postindustrial city. Built to serve the GDR coal industry, it lost over half its population to outmigration after German reunification and the coal industry crisis, leading to the large-scale deconstruction of its cityscape. This book tells the story of its inhabitants, now forced to reconsider their futures. Building on recent theoretical work, it advances a new anthropological approach to time, allowing us to investigate the postindustrial era and the futures it has supposedly lost.

Addressing Urban Shrinkage in Small and Medium Sized Towns
Addressing Urban Shrinkage in Small and Medium Sized Towns

Author: Hans Schlappa

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2021-05-10

Total Pages: 115

ISBN-13: 180043698X

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The analytical tools and practical examples provided by Schlappa and Nishino are relevant for political and administrative decisionmakers, leaders of civil society and business organisations in developing locally appropriate, creative and robust strategies to shrink smart and re-grow smaller.

Shrinking Cities
Shrinking Cities

Author: Karina Pallagst

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-08-15

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 1135072221

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The shrinking city phenomenon is a multidimensional process that affects cities, parts of cities or metropolitan areas around the world that have experienced dramatic decline in their economic and social bases. Shrinkage is not a new phenomenon in the study of cities. However, shrinking cities lack the precision of systemic analysis where other factors now at work are analyzed: the new economy, globalization, aging population (a new population transition) and other factors related to the search for quality of life or a safer environment. This volume places shrinking cities in a global perspective, setting the context for in-depth case studies of cities within Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Germany, France, Great Britain, South Korea, Australia, and the USA, which consider specific economic, social, environmental, cultural and land-use issues.

Shrinking Cities
Shrinking Cities

Author: Harry W. Richardson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-03-14

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1136162100

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This book examines a rapidly emerging new topic in urban settlement patterns: the role of shrinking cities. Much coverage is given to declining fertility rates, ageing populations and economic restructuring as the factors behind shrinking cities, but there is also reference to resource depletion, the demise of single-company towns and the micro-location of environmental hazards. The contributions show that shrinkage can occur at any scale – from neighbourhood to macro-region - and they consider whether shrinkage of metropolitan areas as a whole may be a future trend. Also addressed in this volume is the question of whether urban shrinkage policies are necessary or effective. The book comprises four parts: world or regional issues (with reference to the European Union and Latin America); national case studies (the United States, India, China, Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Romania and Estonia); city case studies (Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland, Naples, Belfast and Halle); and broad issues such as the environmental consequences of shrinking cities. This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners working in the fields of urban studies, economic geography and public policy.

Can Policies Learn? The Case of Urban Restructuring in Eastern Germany
Can Policies Learn? The Case of Urban Restructuring in Eastern Germany

Author: Adam Radzimski

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 13

ISBN-13:

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Among the policies that were introduced with the specific purpose of dealing with the problems of east German cities one needs to mention especially the programme 'Stadtumbau Ost' (which can be translated into English as 'Urban Restructuring East'). It was initiated in the year 2002 as a reaction to extraordinarily high vacancies that plagued east German cities as a result of a strong process of demographic shrinkage. This policy was intended to be based on the integrated approach to urban regeneration. Integrated approach is a concept that has been present in the planning discourse for a number of years, but it has become particularly popular due to the 'Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European City'. It is generally agreed that the integrated approach, in contrast to a narrowly focused sectoral approach, should be based on strategic planning, include projects in different fields of intervention, and involve a number of different public and private actors. However, as it turned out, in the initial phase the implementation of Stadtumbau Ost tended to be narrowly focused on housing market issues, particularly on dealing with housing vacancies.Although it was generally agreed that Stadtumbau Ost significantly contributed to the stabilisation of housing markets in east German cities, with respect to other aspects (qualitative improvements in urban space) it turned out to be much less successful, at least in the first years of the implementation. As a consequence, the policy has undergone some changes in terms of legal regulations and financing in the next years. In this paper we would like present the gradual change that the policy has undergone in the course of the implementation. Using a range of sources including existing literature on the subject, policy reports, legal documents and financial data, as well as referring to information gathered during field research we look at the changes that the policy has undergone overtime, asking to what extent these changes resulted from the underlying dynamics of socio-economic processes, and to what extent can they be seen as a result of strategic decision making, resulting from a critical evaluation of the initial phase of policy implementation.