1st Edition
Postsocialist Shrinking Cities
This book provides a comparative analysis of shrinking cities in a broad range of postsocialist countries within the so-called Global East, a liminal space between North and South. While shrinking cities have received increased scholarly attention in the past decades, theoretical, and empirical research has remained predominantly centered on the Global North. This volume brings to the fore a range of new perspectives on urban shrinkage, identifying commonalities, differences, and policy experiences across a very diverse and vivid region with its various legacies and contemporary controversial developments. With chapters written by leading experts in the field, insider views assist in decolonizing urban theory. Specifically, the book includes chapters on shrinking cities in China, Russia, and postsocialist Europe, presenting comparative discussions within countries and crossnational cases on theoretical and policy implications.
The book will be of interest to students and scholars researching urban studies, urban geography, urban planning, urban politics and policy, urban sociology, and urban development.
Part I: Shrinkage in the Postsocialist countries: concepts and theory
1. Introduction-Urban Shrinkage in the Postsocialist realm
Maria Gunko, Chung-Tong Wu, Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz and Kai Zhou
2. Postsocialist shrinking cities in a triple geopolitical and socioeconomic context
Chung-Tong Wu, Maria Gunko, Kai Zhou and Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz
Part II: China
3. Introduction to the China Section
Kai Zhou and Yangui Dai
4. Population shrinkage in resource-dependent cities of China during transition period
He Li
5. Shrinkage evolution trajectory of China’s resource-exhausted cities and underlying causal factors
Minwei Zhang and Helin Liu
6. Two sides of the same coin: City growth and shrinkage in rapidly urbanizing China
Kai Zhou, Zhiwei Du and Yangui Dai
7. Shrinkage Urban growth: A case study of regional shrinkage in Wuhan, China
Zhe Gao
8. Urban shrinkage in the double periphery: insights from the Sino-Russian borderland
Ekaterina Mikhailova and Chung-Tong Wu
Part III: Russia
9. Introduction to the Russia section
Maria Gunko
10. Urban shrinkage in Russia: concepts and causes of urban population loss in the post-Soviet period
Ksenia Averkieva and Vera Efremova
11. Diverse landscape of urban and regional shrinkage in Russia: pre-conditions versus pre-conceptions in planning and policy
Elena Batunova and Maria Gunko
12. The Transformation of local labour markets of shrinking cities in Russia from 2010-2017
Evgenii Antonov
13. Giving birth in dying towns: healthcare shrinkage in a depopulating Russian region
Anastasia Novkunskaya
14. Review of Spatial planning instruments in a Russian shrinking city: the case of Kirovsk in the Murmansk region
Daria Chigareva
Part IV: Postsocialist Europe
15. Introduction to the Postsocialist Europe section
Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz
16. Shrinking cities in postsocialist countries of East-Central and South Eastern Europe: A general and comparative overview
Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz
17. Shrinking cities in Poland: recent trends of change and emerging policy responses
Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz and Emilia Jaroszewska
18. Coping with shrinkage in old and young mining cities of Slovakia: the cases of Banská Štiavnica and Prievidza
Ján Buček, Branislav Bleha and Marek Richter
19. Why is Ostrava in Czechia still shrinking?
Petr Rumpel and Ondřej Slach
20. Drivers, consequences and governance of urban shrinkage in Lithuania: the case of Šiauliai
Gintarė Pociūtė-Sereikienė and Donatas Burneika
Part V: Conclusions, policy implications and research
21. Postsocialist Shrinking Cities: Policy themes and future research
Chung-Tong Wu, Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz, Maria Gunko and Kai Zhou
Biography
Chung-Tong Wu is Honorary Professor, University of Sydney, and Emeritus Professor, University of New South Wales and Western Sydney University, and is the inaugural Chair of the Advisory Committee, Halloran Research Trust (Henry Halloran Trust), University of Sydney.
Maria Gunko is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences and Lecturer at the Faculty of Geography and Geoinformation Technologies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia.
Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz is a Chair Professor of Geography and Head of the Department of Economic Geography at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.
Kai Zhou is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Head of the Urban Planning Department in the School of Architecture and Planning, Hunan University, China.
