Cities Regrowing Smaller – Facing the Challenge of Shrinking Cities

3 Lessons
The issue of defining the term ‚Shrinking Cities’
Though the academic debate on shrinking cities is still in its infancy we find a
multitude of definitions (see Avila de Sousa 2010):
• Consensus on the demographic characteristic: decreasing population
• Quantitative aspect differs widely (with regard to applicable threshold as
well as whether relative shrinkage is included)
• No consensus if the definition should comprise other aspects of a structural
and multidimensional phenomenon
In the COST Action a ‚shrinking city’ is defined as …
• a densely populated urban area with a minimum population of 5,000
residents
• that has faced a population loss in large parts of it
• for more than 2 years and
• is undergoing transformations with some symptoms of a structural crisis.
Based on: SCiRN 2005
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Wiechmann Cities Regrowing Smaller
16.02.2011
Page 16