Search

Urban gardens are focal in metropolitan social-ecological infrastructure and yet they are spaces often threatened by urban development. In Berlin and Warsaw, major urban changes have prompted citizens to alter their attitudes toward the use of existing garden areas. This study tackles the socio-spatial phenomena of emerging grassroots projects and practices jointly implemented by groups of allotment and community gardeners, which are instrumental in envisioning new forms of common management and protection of garden spaces along urban transformations. The article investigates how cooperation between gardeners of different backgrounds influences allotments’ patterns of property and public accessibility. The focus is on a possible change of perspective regarding the use of closed allotment structures and the conceptualisation of a new form of hybrid urban landscape: an integrated garden. Our findings fit into the general debate on gardens as commons and new forms of green space selfgovernance.

Greening and green regeneration have been developed as a major strategy for improving quality of life in cities and neighbourhoods. Greening policies and projects are being applied at both the citywide and the neighbourhood level for various reasons, such as adaptation to climate change and the improvement of housing and living conditions as well as wellbeing and health. Urban policies, plans, and programmes have increasingly employed greening strategies to make urban neighbourhoods more attractive, to improve quality of life, and to provide residents with recreational space. At the same time, greening is increasingly “exploited” by market-oriented regeneration and construction strategies. The new critical debates on eco-gentrification—or distributional, procedural, and interactional injustices—are discussing emerging conflicts or trade-offs between green regeneration and the social or housing market impacts, as well as analysing the role of greening and green regeneration with respect to the (re)production of socio-spatial inequalities and injustices.Set against this background, our paper provides a comparative analysis of two cases—Łódź Stare Polesie (Poland) and Leipzig’s inner east (Germany)—and has a threefold purpose: first, it seeks to analyse interconnections between greening policies and justice concerns. To operationalise the aforementioned interconnections, we will, second, develop an operational model that looks at interconnections as a process and applies a justice perspective that focuses on a multidimensional, intersectional, relational, and context- and policy-sensitive understanding of justice. Third, the paper seeks to detect how a contrasting comparison can help us to come to a better and more comprehensive understanding of the interconnections between green regeneration and justice. The study itself builds on primary research about the two cases from earlier projects.

Remote sensing has evolved to become a key tool for various fields of environmental analysis, thus actively informing policy across areas and domains. To evaluate the degree to which remote sensing is contributing to the science of ecologically-oriented urban planning, we carried out a systematic literature review using the SCOPUS database, searching for articles integrating knowledge in urban planning, remote sensing and ecology. We reviewed 186 articles, analysing various issues in urban environments worldwide. Key findings include that the level of integration between the three disciplines is limited, with only 12% of the papers fully integrating ecology, remote sensing and planning while 24% of the studies use specific methods from one domain only. The vast majority of studies is oriented towards contributing to the knowledge base or monitoring the impacts of existing policies. Few studies are directly policy relevant by either contributing to direct issues in planning and making specific design suggestions or evaluations. The accessibility of the scientific findings remains limited, as the majority of journal articles are not open access and proprietary software and data are frequently used. To overcome these issues, we suggest three future avenues for science as well as three potential entry points for remote sensing into applied urban planning. By doing so, remote sensing data could become a vital tool actively contributing to policies, civil engagement and concrete planning measures by providing independent and cost effective environmental analyses.

This article aims to position postsocialist cities in Central and Eastern Europe in the broader debate on urban environmental justice. The article crosscuts through all three dimensions of justice (distributive/distributional, procedural/participatory, and interactional/recognition) in the context of urban green and blue space provision. Environmental justice is still an emerging topic in postsocialist cities, constrained by market-orientation and neoliberal trends within society, privatization, and the primacy of private interests. The respective situation in postsocialist cities provides insights into the international debate on environmental justice, by highlighting some extremes related to neoliberal and populist governments and very rapid processes that lack long-term democratic consensus within societies. The findings of this study are discussed in the context of a postsocialist legacy, which includes broad tolerance for inequalities, a lack of solidarity in society, a lack of responsibility for the public interest, and extreme individualization and disregard for social interests. This has gradually led to the corporatization of local authorities and various business–government coalitions. This setting is more likely to favor business models related to the use and management of urban green and blue spaces than the environmental justice discourse

This paper undertakes a comparison of two regrowing and two shrinking European cities in order to identify the factors driving demographic regrowth and economic recovery of cities and how and why those factors are at work in some cities that turned from population decline towards new growth while others did not. Our objectives are to systematically elaborate the factors that are influencing urban regrowth, explain how these factors interact and are mutually dependent and to discuss how these factors relate to contextual conditions at different scales. For our contrasting analysis, we selected Liverpool and Leipzig, two cities that have seen regrowth after shrinkage and Lódz and Ostrava, two cities that continue to shrink. As a result of this comparison, we identify general local and contextual factors driving regrowth and discuss their interaction and what we learn from this for the wider urbanisation debate.

In this paper, we introduce the special issue “The future of urban sustainability: Smart, efficient, green or just?” the special issue aims to explore the relationships, conflicts and connections between different approaches to urban sustainability and begin to build a shared understanding of the roles, synergies and tradeoffs between them. Papers in this special issue emphasize the multidimensionality of urban sustainability and its integration of social, ecological, economic, and technological systems.

Comparative urban studies (CUS) are a widespread applied research approach across various disciplines. The increasing importance that has recently been given to this research method goes hand in hand with the lack of attention paid to various methodological trade-offs surrounding CUS. These trade-offs are a result of the two contrasting poles that CUS tries to pay attention to: the universal one that applies to all cities and the specific one that applies to one city at a defined time and location.This viewpoint seeks to uncover these trade-offs, discuss strategies about how to deal with them and explore the corresponding consequences in order to support approaches to a) critically reflect on the consequences of methodological decisions; and b) incorporate procedures which might help to resolve some of these difficulties and limitations. The arguments presented here help to sensitise researchers in their applied and theoretical work for the potential opportunities of CUS. We hope to foster the debate about CUS and contribute to the development of robust and methodically precise CUS which balance the intricate coalition between theoretical concepts and the empirical reality.

How are shrinking cities perceived by scholars, policymakers and citizens in different national contexts, and how do their discourses affect the nation's policies toward those cities? Although the interest in urban shrinkage has steadily grown among scholars worldwide during recent years, little has been written about these issues. This is the gap which the Special Issue “Urban shrinkage” presenting a cross-national comparison (Japan, US, Germany) seeks to fill. This article sets up the frame for the SI; we outline a circular relationship between conditions of shrinkage, the discourse and the design and implementation of policies to counteract challenges posed by shrinkage. We focus on six propositions with which we try to define the boundaries and limitations of the shrinking city literature. Afterwards, we present a model through which we interpret the triangular relationships of discourse, conditions and policy. Finally, we set the stage for the articles that follow.

Greening cities, namely installing new parks, rooftop gardens or planting trees along the streets, undoubtedly contributes to an increase in wellbeing and enhances the attractiveness of open spaces in cities. At the same time, we observe an increasing use of greening strategies as ingredients of urban renewal, upgrading and urban revitalization as primarily market-driven endeavours targeting middle class and higher income groups sometimes at the expense of less privileged residents. This paper reflects on the current debate of the social effects of greening using selected examples. We discuss what trade-offs between social and ecological developments in cities mean for the future debate on greening cities and a socially balanced and inclusive way of developing our cities for various groups of urban dwellers. We conclude that current and future functions and features of greening cities have to be discussed more critically including a greater awareness of social impacts.

In the preceding papers, we have examined the characteristics of shrinking cities in Germany, Japan and the United States, and described the distinctive features of how both the discourse and the policy response to the shrinking cities phenomenon emerged in each country. In this paper, we build on that description to offer a comparative analysis of the phenomenon and the response. We organize this discussion around the same three elements that have animated the preceding work: conditions, discourse, policy and action. While there are significant differences, we find significant common ground between the three countries; in particular, we find that for discourse to lead to action, three steps are required: First, the condition must be identified, second, it must be problematized, and third, the problem must be de-contextualized. Finally, in addition to these steps, a critical element in the movement from discourse to policy is the existence of conditions adequate to create the political will to address the problem. These underlying factors cut across national differences in culture, governmental structure, and policy.

Urban shrinkage has become an issue for urban planning and policy in Europe because approximately 40% of its large cities are currently losing population. Shrinkage implies dramatic land-use impacts, including under-utilisation, vacancy, demolition, emerging brownfield sites, and de-densification. However, shrinkage also offers great potential to “re-create”—that is, to enhance and implement—urban green space including the ecosystem services it provides: Local climate and air quality regulation by trees that grow on abandoned land, carbon sequestration and storage by vegetation on vacant lots, preservation or enhancement of urban biodiversity, and recreational facilities that support the mental and physical health of the inhabitants through the enlargement of parks and woodlands. This paper argues that there is a linkage—a nexus—between shrinkage and ecosystem services provisioning. We develop a matrix approach that links the potentials of land use (change) related to urban shrinkage with ecosystem services provisioning in cities. Through a discussion of these potentials, challenges, and the relevant strategies of urban planning such as interim uses, urban afforestation, or community gardens, we show how planning policy in shrinking cities could benefit from considering the nexus between shrinkage and urban ecosystem services provision. Empirical evidence comes from Leipzig, Germany, a city that has, until very recently, experienced decades of shrinkage and still faces many of the resulting challenges.

Urban shrinkage has become an issue for urban planning and policy in Europe because approximately 40% of its large cities are currently losing population. Shrinkage implies dramatic land-use impacts, including under-utilisation, vacancy, demolition, emerging brownfield sites, and de-densification. However, shrinkage also offers great potential to “re-create”—that is, to enhance and implement—urban green space including the ecosystem services it provides: Local climate and air quality regulation by trees that grow on abandoned land, carbon sequestration and storage by vegetation on vacant lots, preservation or enhancement of urban biodiversity, and recreational facilities that support the mental and physical health of the inhabitants through the enlargement of parks and woodlands. This paper argues that there is a linkage—a nexus—between shrinkage and ecosystem services provisioning. We develop a matrix approach that links the potentials of land use (change) related to urban shrinkage with ecosystem services provisioning in cities. Through a discussion of these potentials, challenges, and the relevant strategies of urban planning such as interim uses, urban afforestation, or community gardens, we show how planning policy in shrinking cities could benefit from considering the nexus between shrinkage and urban ecosystem services provision. Empirical evidence comes from Leipzig, Germany, a city that has, until very recently, experienced decades of shrinkage and still faces many of the resulting challenges.

Recently, an international debate on urban shrinkage has brought together national strands of research on those cities that have experienced considerable population loss over a prolonged period. Partially as the result of language constraints and varied terminology used, these national debates have occurred rather separately and the huge potential for eliciting cross-national knowledge has just begun to be exploited. The paper aims to augment and sharpen the international research agenda on urban shrinkage. We call for a more elaborate bridging of national discussions, enhancing scholarly understanding of urban shrinkage, and reflecting upon governance and policy. Last but not least, this paper seeks to align the research on urban shrinkage with general challenges and strands of research in urban and regional studies, human geography, and spatial planning. For the chosen topics, we highlight both recent accomplishments and open questions.

Both modelers and social scientists attempt to find better explanations of complex urban systems. They include development paths, underlying driving forces and their expected impacts. So far, land-use research has predominantly focused on urban growth. However, new challenges have arisen since urban shrinkage entered the research agenda of the social and land-use sciences. Therefore, the focus of this paper is a twofold one: Using the example of urban shrinkage, we first discuss the capacity of existing land-use modeling approaches to integrate new social science knowledge in terms of land-use, demography and governance because social science models are indispensable for accurately explaining the processes behind shrinkage. Second, we discuss the combination of system dynamics (SD), cellular automata (CA) and agent-based model (ABM) approaches to cover the main characteristics, processes and patterns of urban shrinkage. Using Leipzig, Germany, as a case study, we provide the initial results of a joint SD-CA model and an ABM that both operationalize social science knowledge regarding urban shrinkage.

For decades inner cities in East Central Europe have been characterised by physical dilapidation, ageing in place and selective outmigration. Post-socialist transition added to these developments by further outmigration due to suburbanisation but also provided new opportunities of residential change. In Polish and Czech second-order cities there is selective in-migration by younger households which remains so far almost hidden to the official statistics. Among them a new type of inner-city dwellers can be identified, that is transitory urbanites. They take the inner city as a perfect residential place in their current phase of life and value its characteristics both in emotional and pragmatic terms. But they do not expect to stay there for good and might leave the inner city in the future for another urban area or suburbia. However, while being present now they bring about residential change in the inner city and pave the way for future in-migrants of similar social status and age. From our material and observations, we can formulate the hypothesis that their importance has increased decisively during the last decade. Our paper draws on empirical research from in Łódź and Brno from 2006 to 2009.

no abstract