Negotiating Possibilities in Shrinking Cities: Potentials, Challenges, and Policy Implications

Bettina Knoop and Robert Knippschild
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Bettina Knoop: Interdisciplinary Centre for Transformative Urban Regeneration (IZS) Görlitz, Germany / IHI Zittau, TU Dresden, Germany
Robert Knippschild: Interdisciplinary Centre for Transformative Urban Regeneration (IZS) Görlitz, Germany / IHI Zittau, TU Dresden, Germany / Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER), Germany

Urban Planning, 2026, vol. 11

Abstract: Dominant narratives of urban success continue to privilege growth and acceleration. Within this framework, shrinking cities are frequently labelled as left‐behind, lagging, or peripheralized places. Such stigmatizing interpretations not only obscure the structural conditions of urban shrinkage but may also foster a perceived loss of agency and subsequently constrain local capacities to envision and actively shape alternative urban futures. This thematic issue calls for a paradigm shift: Bringing together contributions from different disciplinary perspectives that address spatial scales from international comparisons to the neighborhood level, it explores both the potentials and the persistent challenges that urban shrinkage entails for a high quality of life and for urban sustainability transitions. Alongside a critical reassessment of quantitative growth indicators as measures of urban success, the editorial advocates integrating urban growth and shrinkage at both analytical and policy levels as a prerequisite for more resilient, just, and sustainable spatial developments.

Keywords: growth paradigm; peripheralization; quality of life; shrinking cities; spatial justice; urban policy; urban resilience; urban sustainability transitions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:urbpla:v11:y:2026:a:12183

DOI: 10.17645/up.12183

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