Shrinking cities in a time of crisis

Abstract

The intractable decline and relentless depopulation of certain cities and suburbs in the U.S., Japan, and Western and Eastern Europe-exacerbated by the current global financial crisis-have stimulated scholarly research into causal explanations and new ways of understanding the synergies of decline and growth beyond classic formulations. In the midst of this search, which is by no means complete or conclusive, "urban shrinkage" has acquired a new meaning connoting a variety of urban afflictions and encompassing both the global North and South (Audirac and Arroyo forthcoming).