Urban shrinkage in post-socialist countries

The article has two main tasks. On the one hand, it attempts to perform a comparative analysis of the shrinkage process of post-socialist cities in an international perspective and to formulate generalisations and recommendations. On the other hand, it presents the specificity of this process in various national, regional and local contexts. The analysis covers selected countries located in post-socialist Europe (with emphasis on East-Central and Southeast Europe), Russia and China and is focused on three issues: 1) geography of the shrinkage process of post-socialist cities; 2) common and country-specific factors responsible for urban shrinkage; 3) comparative analysis and conclusions in the context of managing urban shrinkage. The article points to the fact that urban shrinkage (especially in terms of demography) is one of the world challenges (with its scale being particularly large in post-socialist Europe), and the COVID-19 pandemic has started to affect its course and spatial distribution. The following key problems associated with the shrinkage of post-socialist cities are identified: 1) overcoming the demographic crisis; 2) demographic compensation for the migration outflow of the population; 3) overcoming the negative consequences of deindustrialization; 4) the problem of “wild” uncontrolled suburbanization, etc.

Ключевые слова

urban shrinkage, post-socialist cities, East-Central and Southeast Europe, Russia, China

Получено

16.11.2021

Дата публикации

28.04.2022

Кол-во символов

22804

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ГОСТ	Stryjakiewicz T. Urban shrinkage in post-socialist countries // Псковский регионологический журнал – 2022. – Том 18. №1 /2022 C. 3-13 [Электронный ресурс]. URL: https://prj.pskgu.ru/S221979310017505-8-1 (дата обращения: 06.05.2024). DOI: 10.37490/S221979310017505-8
MLA	Stryjakiewicz, Tadeusz "Urban shrinkage in post-socialist countries." Pskov Journal of Regional Studies 1 (2022):3-13. DOI: 10.37490/S221979310017505-8
APA	Stryjakiewicz T. (2022). Urban shrinkage in post-socialist countries. Pskov Journal of Regional Studies (1), pp.3-13 DOI: 10.37490/S221979310017505-8

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1	Introduction. Urban shrinkage (especially its demographic aspect) has become one of important challenges of today’s world. In the most concise terms, this process is defined as a long-term decrease in the number of inhabitants combined with the crisis of a local economy, degradation of built environment and growing social problems [18; 52]. It may take various forms and its determinants are different, extensively discussed in the source literature. Admittedly, the shrinkage process occurred in some cities in the US and Western Europe (mostly in traditional industry centres) before; however, after 1990 it has become particularly large in many post-socialist cities¹ of East-Central and Southeast Europe, Russia and China. Initially, a decrease in the population number there was treated as a temporary phenomenon (related to the change in socio-economic and political systems, i.e., the so-called systemic transformation), hence it was not given due attention in urban policy. Today, this approach has begun to change, and the shrinkage of post-socialist cities is subject to an increasingly lively interdisciplinary discussion of researchers and practitioners. This discussion covers many strands (e.g. causes, the scale and spatial distribution of urban shrinkage, consequences of this process and ways of overcoming them) and its most important results are included in the works of Petrović [42], Steinführer, Haase [57], Großmann et al. [18], Audirac, Fol and Martinez-Fernandez [2], Bontje and Musterd [10], Stryjakiewicz, Ciesiółka and Jaroszewska [53], Siljanoska, Korobar and Stefanovska [48], Rumpel, Slach [45], Stryjakiewicz, ed. [52], CIRES Synopsis Report [11], Haase [19; 20], Constantinescu [13], Ubarevičiene [57], Bartosiewicz, Kwiatek-Sołtys and Kurek [5], Jaroszewska [27], and Jaroszewska, Stryjakiewicz [28].	1. In this article, the term ‘post-socialist city’ denotes cities developing in the system of a centrally planned economy, which, after the so-called systemic transformation, began to function in different conditions, adopting many elements of a market system. Despite the fact that this transformation took various forms in East-Central and Southeast Europe, Russia and China, still all these cities have undergone changes related to overcoming the heritage of a ‘socialist city’. An extensive discussion on the features of socialist and post-socialist cities can be found in the works of Sailer-Fliege [46], Stanilova [49], Sykora [55], Parysek [40; 41], and Stryjakiewicz, Ciesiółka and Jaroszewska [53], among others.
2	The increasing scope of research on the shrinkage process of post-socialist cities in various countries prompts, on the one hand, attempts to undertake comparative analysis and to formulate generalisations and recommendations in an international perspective and, on the other hand, to show the specificity of this process in different national, regional and local contexts. This is also a dual purpose of this publication.
3	Not only the topicality of the issue was an incentive to write this article, but also the author’s long-standing participation in scientific and practical projects related to urban shrinkage in an international perspective², editing CIRES Synopsis Report [11], as well as co-editing a monograph entitled ‘Postsocialist shrinking cities’ [64], comparing the experiences of shrinking cities in post-socialist Europe, Russia and China. The analysis of urban shrinkage in this article has been reduced to three groups of issues: 1) geography of the shrinkage process of post-socialist cities; 2) common and country-specific factors responsible for urban shrinkage; 3) comparative analysis and conclusions in the context of managing urban shrinkage.	2. These are the following projects: CIRES — Cities Regrowing Smaller. Fostering knowledge on regeneration strategies in shrinking cities across Europe — the project implemented as part of COST, i. e., European Cooperation in Science and Technology, and Re-City — Reviving shrinking cities – innovative paths and perspectives towards livability for shrinking cities in Europe — the project implemented as part of Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie ITN Action.
4	These issues are presented in a synthetic form (often only as an indication of the problem), with frequent references to the literature for a detailed, more in-depth analysis of the process.
5	Geography of the shrinkage process of post-socialist cities. Geographical analysis of the shrinkage process of post-socialist cities is not easy. This is so, because they are located in three different megaregions (Europe, Russia and China) that vary in terms of size, environmental, political and institutional conditions (post-socialist transformation took various forms there), the intensity and dynamic of the shrinkage, and the availability and reliability of statistical data and other source information. What is also different are definitions and criteria of delimitation of cities and their size classification in settlement patterns of particular countries. Szymańska [58, p. 97] rightly observes “what is regarded as a small town in one country may be considered a large city in another”. Given the objections above limiting the possibilities of comparative analyses, it may be stated, however, that the process of urban shrinkage occurs in all three of the above-mentioned megaregions, whereas its determinants, scale, dynamics, forms of manifestation, consequences and spatial distribution vary considerably.
6	In relative terms, unquestionable ‘shrinkage leaders’ are cities in East-Central and Southeast Europe. In some countries of this region (Baltic States, Bulgaria, Romania) the scale of the process is so large that the vast majority of cities can be described as shrinking in all the aspects of this phenomenon, i.e., demographic, economic, social and spatial, and the demographic dimension seems to be crucial. While in the USA the proportion of shrinking cities is about 35 % [22], in the EU about 20–25 % [35; 63], it is between 70 % and 90 % in the above-mentioned countries [17; 63]. Moreover, Mykhnenko and Turok [37] point out that the shrinking process is very fast. It is therefore not surprising that Steinfȕhrer et al. [51] call the post-socialist part of Europe a ‘new pole of shrinkage’ and Eva, Cehan, Lazar [17] the ‘epicentre of urban shrinkage’. The detailed characteristics of the urban shrinkage process in post-socialist Europe can be found in the works of Mykhnenko and Turok [37], Stryjakiewicz, ed. [52] and Haase [20], among other researchers.

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