Urban Shrinkage in East Central Europe? Benefits and Limits of a Cross-National Transfer of Research Approaches

Abstract

This article intended as a position paper reflecting on concept- -building discusses the question of how far the term and concept of urban shrinkage apply to postsocialist cities in East Central Europe. In addressing this issue, it touches on the more general topic of the benefits and limitations of the transferability of scientific terms and concepts. Urban shrinkage, as it has evolved from the eastern German context, is introduced and discussed in light of the British and North American debates. The second part of the paper applies this concept to the urban context of postsocialist East Central Europe (ECE), using Polish and Czech cities as examples. In our concluding remarks, we argue (among other points) that it makes sense to work on a good, robust, and clearly focused conceptualization of urban shrinkage as a transferable concept for different frameworks, but to be careful and specific with its application to any concept not only in the ECE context. We suggest differentiating between process, causes, and consequences of urban shrinkage.

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