Urban Shrinkage as a Catalyst of a Transition, Revolving around Definitions

Abstract

For decades, urban shrinkage has remained a serious challenge, especially in post-socialist countries. Substantially, it is recognizable as a temporary population loss; this encourages the undertaking of a systematic review of the phenomenon—has there been any change in the urban shrinkage connotation in the past years? Empirical research examines the mechanisms that were disclosed in the literature during the first two decades of the 21st century. This paper outlines the core aspects of shrinkage in the economic, social, and spatial dimensions. The paper questions whether the phenomenon is a catalyst to a new development trajectory of cities, collecting a review of the terms attached to shrinkage itself. The analysis is based on a meta-analysis of the literature; it covers the papers and outputs of research projects that were focused on shrinkage from 2000 to 2020. The review leads to conceptual models based on the perpetual mechanism of the phenomenon.