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Soziale Differenzierung ist in den Großstädten Ostdeutschlands zu einem wesentlichen Charakteristikum urbaner Entwicklung, Alltagswahrnehmung und Politik geworden. Insbesondere lässt sich dies in den Städten beobachten, welche nach der Schrumpfung der 1990er-Jahre seit Kurzem wieder dynamisch wachsen. Die Vertiefung sozialer Ungleichheiten (soziale Differenzierung) sowie die Vervielfältigung von Lebensstilen, Lebenswelten und Identitäten (zunehmende Heterogenität) sind Teil dieser Entwicklung. Vor diesem Hintergrund diskutiert der Beitrag soziale Differenzierung und zunehmende Heterogenität der Bevölkerung in Leipzig mit einem Fokus auf Alltagswahrnehmungen der Bewohner sowie der lokalen Politikentwicklung. Es wird analysiert, wie soziale Differenz und zunehmende Heterogenität zu einem Thema im Alltag und für die Politik werden und wie beide Perspektiven in Bezug zueinander stehen. Der Beitrag fußt auf einem mehrdimensionalen Verständnis von Heterogenität einschließlich der sozioökonomischen, demographischen, lebensstilbezogenen und ethnisch-migrantischen Dimensionen. Räumlich gesehen werden sowohl die gesamtstädtische als auch die Quartiersperspektive betrachtet. Die Analyse kommt unter anderem zu dem Ergebnis, dass soziale Heterogenität in ihrer horizontalen Dimension anerkannt und wahrgenommen wird und sich diese Anerkennung auch in der Politikformulierung findet. Das gilt nicht im gleichen Maße für Ausprägungen sozialer Ungleichheit. Das Beispiel Leipzig zeigt überdies, dass der generelle Diskurs stärker differenzieren muss zwischen dem Anliegen, horizontale Differenz (explizit) anzuerkennen, der notwendigen Bekämpfung vertikaler sozialer Ungleichheiten sowie dem Umstand, dass sich aus deren Überschneidung zahlreiche neue Unübersichtlichkeiten und Komplexitäten ergeben.

Green regeneration has become one of the most powerful strategies for improving the quality of life in cities, supporting climate change adaptation, and reducing the carbon footprints of cities. While it is the ambition of most green regeneration projects to create benefits for residents and users, reality shows that green regeneration also reinforces existing or even shapes new 'green inequalities'. These can result from green gentrification and displacement, procedural injustices, and exclusion from participation or barriers to the access and use of newly created urban green spaces. Set against this background, the paper uses a conflict analysis perspective to look at the inequalities and injustices that evolve within the context of green regeneration. Applying social conflict theory, it seeks to understand (1) why and how green regeneration may lead to inequality and justice conflicts and (2) how conflict analysis helps to understand the nature and implications of green regeneration conflicts in more depth. As for its empirical foundation, the paper reanalyses empirical evidence that was examined in earlier projects on a residential area in the city of Leipzig, Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. • Greening and green regeneration have been developed as a major strategy for improving quality of life in cities and neighbourhoods. • At the same time, greening is increasingly "exploited" by market-oriented regeneration and construction strategies. • Set against this background, our paper provides a comparative analysis of two cases—Łódź Stare Polesie (Poland) and Leipzig's inner east (Germany). • Set against this background, our paper provides a comparative analysis of two cases—Łódź Stare Polesie (Poland) and Leipzig's inner east (Germany). • It analyses interconnections between greening policies and justice concerns. • It develops 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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the question of how urban shrinkage gets onto the agenda of public-policy agencies. It is based on a comparison of the agenda-setting histories of four European cities, Liverpool ( UK), Leipzig ( Germany), Genoa ( Italy) and Bytom ( Poland), which have all experienced severe population losses but show very different histories with respect to how local governments reacted to them. We use the political-science concepts of 'systemic vs. institutional agendas' and 'policy windows' as a conceptual frame to compare these experiences. The article demonstrates that shrinkage is hardly ever responded to in a comprehensive manner but rather that policies are only implemented in a piecemeal way in selected fields. Moreover, it is argued that variations in institutional contexts and political dynamics lead to considerable differences with regard to the chances of making shrinkage a matter of public intervention. Against this background, the article takes issue with the idea that urban shrinkage only needs to be 'accepted' by policymakers who would need to overcome their growth-oriented cultural perceptions, as has been suggested in a number of recent writings, and calls for a more differentiated, context-sensitive view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reurbanisation was identified in European cities since the 1980s. It is a process in which cities stop losing population, stabilise, and regrow. It is however questioned whether reurbanisation represents a long‐term process of urban living or a short‐term stage. Using the city of Leipzig, Germany, we show that reurbanisation has been ongoing over the last 15 years. Reurbanisation has the potential to be a long‐term, consolidated process in Leipzig's inner‐city areas and even spread to other parts of the city creating novel socio‐demographic patterns. The local context—with key importance of the housing market—is crucial for the emergence and course of current urban development processes. Future research should investigate the underpinnings of housing market processes and policies and how they impact residential mobility, socio‐spatial differentiation, and transformation of urban space. Using a flexible selection of indicators, this will enable a comprehensive understanding of the spatio‐temporal dynamics of reurbanising cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]