Shrinking Cities: Volume 1
International Research Published by Hatje Cantz.
Edited by Philipp Oswalt. Essays by Regina Bittner, Robert Fishman, Dave Haslam, Wolfgang Kil, Walter Prigge, Klaus Ronneberger, Thomas J. Sugrue and Barbara Steiner. From Great Britain, Belgium, Finland and Italy to Russia, Kazakhstan and China, cities are shrinking--while urban-planning debates focus on the growth of the megalopolis, many of the world's existing population centers are watching their citizens walk away. Between globalization, deindustrialization, suburbanization, the transition to post-Socialism, high unemployment and, in some cases, wider national population losses, the phenomenon is growing. Shrinking Cities Volume 1: International Research, a publication of the Germany-based Shrinking Cities initiative, examines this phenomenon's causes and dynamics on an international level for the first time, exploring examples including Manchester and Liverpool, Detroit, Russia's Ivanovo, and Germany's Halle and Leipzig. Each site represents a specific issue: in Detroit, the consequences of suburbanization; in Manchester and Liverpool, deindustrialization; in Ivanovo, post-socialism; while in the Halle and Leipzig region several of these factors come together. Shrinking Cities: Volume I compares living conditions and cultural change in shrinking urban regions, and offers, along with information, a range of artistic intercessions commissioned to help sensitize the public to this global phenomenon which poses a completely new social challenge and creates the opportunity for cultural renewal.
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