Session G
Small and Medium-Sized Cities, Services and Territories: An International Perspective on Urban Shrinkage
Facilitators: Sophie BAUDET-MICHEL (Géographie-cités), Sophie BUHNIK (MFJ Tokyo), Emmanuèle CUNNINGHAM-SABOT (ENS), Victoria PINONCELY (ENS), Hélène ROTH (Territoires) & Manuel WOLFF (Humboldt-Universität)
In recent decades, the topic of small and medium-sized cities has not drawn much international research interest within the field of urban studies (Bell & Jayne, 2009). Even though small and medium size towns follow different demographic and economic trends, shrinking cities make up a larger proportion in these categories (Cauchi-Duval, 2017; Wolff et al., 2013). Some have been weakened by processes of de-industrialization, as well as by State retrenchment and the restructuring of public services. However, small and medium-sized cities still play an important role, whether in terms of local economic development or in terms of infrastructure and service provision (Santamaria, 2012). Authors started to explore causalities between demographic and economic shrinking in order to explain urban shrinkage (Friedrichs, 1993). Others have underlined the variety of shrinkage factors (Haase et al., 2016). Local public authorities sometimes play a role in slowing or even stopping shrinkage (Großmann et al., 2012; Wolff et al., 2017). Some authors have been looking for alternatives to urban shrinkage (Paddeu, 2012; Béal & Rousseau, 2016).
This session aims at putting into international perspective works dealing with the role of small and medium-sized cities in urban systems and with their influence over local organisations and communities in various countries. Urban shrinkage in small and medium size towns will be a major focus. Our goal is to contribute to a better understanding of the specific transformations that this type of city is currently undergoing in economic, social and demographic terms, with particular emphasis on the provision of equipment and services. What are the timescales involved when it comes to urban decline in small and medium-sized cities? What are the links between economic and demographic shrinkage? Does one systematically precede the other? To what extent do local authorities in small and medium size cities take into account urban shrinkage in planning at different scales –from the local to the regional? We shall examine in particular the notion of “peripheralisation” developed by German researchers to describe the evolution of certain types of territories.
This session will combine contributions from geographers, sociologists, social planners, jurists and political scientists.
Indicative bibliographical references
Batunova E., Gunko M., 2018, “Urban Shrinkage: An Unspoken Challenge of Spatial Planning in Russian Small and Medium-Sized Cities”, European Planning, Studies [doi:10.1080/09654313.2018.1484891].
Baudet-Michel S., Commenges H., Delage M., Vallée J., à paraître, « Rétraction du commerce de détail dans les villes petites et moyennes : l’érosion de la diversité commerciale des communes entre 1979 et 2014 », in S. Deprez (dir.), Actes du colloque « Commerce du futur, Futurs du Commerce », Le Havre, mai 2018, Rennes, PUR.
Béal V., Rousseau M., 2014, « Alterpolitiques ! », Métropoles, n° 15.
Bernt M., Liebmann H. (Hrsg.), 2013, Peripherisierung, Stigmatisierung, Abhängigkeit? Deutsche Mittelstädte und ihr Umgang mit Peripherisierungsprozessen, Wiesbaden, Springer VS.
Berroir S., Fol S., Quéva C., Santamaria F., 2019, « Villes moyennes et dévitalisation des centres : les politiques publiques face aux enjeux d’égalité territoriale », Belgeo, 3-2019, numéro spécial “Small European Cities as Stages for Territorial Equity”.
Buhnik S., 2016, « Géographie de la décroissance démographique et évolution des mobilités quotidiennes dans la conurbation Ōsaka-Kyōto-Kōbe », Espace populations sociétés, 2015/3-2016/1 [doi:10.4000/eps.6150].
Cauchi-Duval N., Cornuau F., Rudolph M., 2017, « La décroissance urbaine en France : les effets cumulatifs du déclin », Métropolitiques, 26.4.2017.
Cunningham-Sabot E., Fol S., Grasland C., Roth H., Van Hamme G., « Shrinking cities et shrinking regions. Définitions et typologies », in M. Baron, E. Cunningham-Sabot, C. Grasland, D. Rivière & G. Van Hamme (dir.), Villes et régions européennes en décroissance : maintenir la cohésion territoriale, Paris, Hermès/Lavoisier, p. 67-95.
Fischer-Tahir A., Naumann M., 2013, Peripheralization: The Making of Spatial Dependencies and Social Injustice, Wiesbaden, Springer.
Großmann K., 2012, “European and US Perspectives on Shrinking Cities”, Conference Report, Urban Research & Practice, 5(3), Nov. 2012, p. 360-363.
Haase A., Bernt M., Großmann K., Mykhnenko V., Rink D., 2016, “Varieties of Shrinkage in European Cities”, European Urban and Regional Studies, 23(1), p. 86-102.
Nelle A., Großmann K., Haase D., Kabisch S., Rink D., Wolff M., 2017, “Urban Shrinkage in Germany: An Entangled Web of Conditions, Debates and Policies”, Cities.
Roth H., 2016, « Du déclin à la périphérisation : quand les courants constructivistes et critiques revisitent les différenciations spatiales en Allemagne », Cybergeo.
Santamaria F., 2012, « Les villes moyennes françaises et leur rôle en matière d’aménagement du territoire : vers de nouvelles perspectives ? », Norois, n° 223, 2012/2, p. 13-30.
Wolff M., Fol S., Roth H., Cunningham-Sabot E., 2013, « Shrinking cities, villes en décroissance : une mesure du phénomène en France », Cybergeo [doi:10.4000/cybergeo.26136].
Wolff M., Fol S., Roth H., Cunningham-Sabot E., 2017, “Is Planning Needed? Shrinking Cities in the French Urban System”, Town Planning Review, 88(1), p. 131-145 [doi:10.3828/tpr.2017.10].
Wolff M., Wiechmann Th., 2017, “Urban Growth and Decline: Europe’s Shrinking Cities in a Comparative Perspective, 1990-2010”, European Urban and Regional Studies, 25(2), p. 122-139 [doi:10.1177/0969776417694680].
