The planning research agenda: shrinking cities - a challenge for planning cultures

In current planning debates, the term 'shrinking city' usually describes a densely populated urban area that has, on the one hand, faced a considerable population loss, and is, on the other hand, currently undergoing a profound economic transformation, with some symptoms of a structural crisis (Pallagst, 2008). According to Oswalt (2006), more than a quarter of the world's metropolises shrank in the 1990s and, notwithstanding ongoing urbanisation processes, this number will continue to increase. With growing interconnectedness both on a European and on a global scale, a significant emerging task for planning researchers is to facilitate a wide-ranging exchange on economic, social, and environmental developments. On an international scale, for instance, it is still not clear whether, or in which way, planning paradigms, planning systems, planning strategies and planning cultures are being adapted when faced with the dynamics of urban shrinkage.