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This author reply responds to commentaries on the implications of our article, ‘Dignity in Urban Geography: Starting a Conversation’ (2022). It elaborates on four points raised by the commentators: the problematization of the universality of this concept, the nexus of dignity and scale, the road to putting dignity into practice, and the differences between dignity as a scholarly normative concept and as a political inspiration. Overall, we argue and illustrate further one of the core arguments in our original article, namely that dignity needs to be understood as plural, relational, and emotional. Central to this argument is a further elaboration of differences of worth imposed by powerful regimes and related orders of worth experienced by people. The elaboration is also used to further challenge the putative universality of the concept of dignity.

Studies in critical urban geography actively deal with injustices and humiliation, employing concepts like equity, justice, sustainability and the like, but strikingly, dignity is not among such current normative concepts. Analytic perspectives and definitions of dignity are widely discussed by philosophy, legal studies, and race and Indigenous studies, but a dialogue of this literature with urban geographical work is still pending. This article initiates a conceptual conversation between these traditions. It reviews how dignity occurs in urban geographical work, then presents contemporary literature on the concept of dignity, and suggests a heuristic approach that can then serve geographical analyses. We outline the potential of scholarly engagement with the concept of dignity and its merits in considering two classic topics of urban geographical scholarship from a dignity-perspective: the employment of dignifying rhetoric for promotion of mega-events, and large housing estates as a stigmatized type of neighbourhood. We highlight affectual and relational perspectives of dignity, including the interpersonal and societal emergence of dignifying or humiliating practices, and the contingency of the concept of dignity across time and context. For critical urban studies and human geography, we thus establish dignity as the moral status of a person, of a collective, and of a place within a given context rather than a universal moral status.

ZusammenfassungAktuell werden Konflikte in der Migrationsdebatte neu bewertet. So wird ihr vermehrtes Auftreten als Zeichen für „gelingende Integration“ interpretiert. Konflikte sind hier als das Verbindungsband konzipiert, das offene, plurale Gesellschaften zusammenhalten kann. Zugetraut wird den Konflikten auch, dass sie einen Stimulus setzen für die demokratische Weiterentwicklung der als postmigrantisch bezeichneten Gesellschaft. Unser Artikel betrachtet in einem Literaturessay unterschiedliche Zugänge zu den Konflikten und bringt dabei einige der auf diesem Gebiet relevanten Forschungsbereiche zusammen. Wir erkunden, wie die Wirkung von Konflikten jeweils beschrieben beziehungsweise erklärt wird und berichten von Ansätzen der Konfliktsoziologie, der Migrationsforschung, der radikalen Demokratietheorie und der Stadtforschung. Konflikte, insbesondere migrationsbezogene Konflikte, erscheinen in der Gesamtbetrachtung als ein ambivalenter Hoffnungsträger, nicht zuletzt deshalb, weil ihre Ursachen multidimensional sind und weil sie sich mit den Wirkungen anderer Konfliktlinien (wie sozialer Ungleichheit) überlagern.

While sustainability was introduced as a game-changing idea, it has often been criticized for its vagueness and its over-accommodating bent toward powerful, vested interests, economic growth, and profit seeking—or, on the contrary, for not being able to enter mainstream politics. As a result, in the current political climate, sustainability policies seem to be everywhere, but so does the social and ecological critique of these policies. In this article, we articulate the seeds of an emerging cross-sectoral shift away from sustainability and toward social-ecological justice. Coming from a multidisciplinary background, we explore commonalities in the shortcomings of sustainability agendas and identify discursive barriers to change across three critical fields: transport, energy, and urban greening. Within each of these fields, we observe an upswing of scholarly work addressing the pitfalls and trade-offs of sustainability, but we also show how taboos and naturalizations embedded in these fields hinder adequately questioning the economy’s role in sustainability thinking and action. To develop our argument that there is an emerging cross-sectoral push away from sustainability agendas and toward social-ecological justice goals, we briefly examine the current state of the wider sustainability discourse together with its critique from a social and ecological justice angle. We then review relevant academic work across the applied fields of transport, energy, and urban greening, focusing on the normative and analytical aspects dealt with, and how they address and conceptualize tensions between the different dimensions of sustainability. In the concluding section, we highlight how a focus on sectoral and local tensions between ecological, economic, and social policy goals uncovers the ways in which injustices or environmental degradation are continually reproduced, despite the sustainability framework. We conclude with suggestions for thinking and acting under the umbrella of social-ecological justice.

In many regions with long-term structural economic and demographic problems, small towns are shrinking as their urban centres, they are losing population, jobs, vibrancy and infrastructure. Yet, kn...

Energy poverty is a far-reaching concept that intrinsically bridges numerous fields of study, ranging from engineering to anthropology and medical science to social psychology. The profound implications of energy poverty on the quality of life globally have also led to a wide range of metrics and policies aimed at measuring it and alleviating it, albeit with limited success. Using a mixed methods approach, our network has conducted research to advance knowledge and interpretations of energy poverty and boost scientific outputs' capacity to shape knowledge-based policies. In this article, we critically review this extensive research endeavor, as well as its results. We build on the conceptual, methodological, and policy dimensions of energy poverty research to set up pathways toward a new, interdisciplinary research and policy agenda on energy poverty mitigation better equipped to provide meaningful answers to the challenges posed by the current ongoing energy crisis.

Trust is a fundamental ingredient of prosperous democracies. In Europe, trust in existing elected democratic institutions is fading while authoritarian nationalist movements grow. Experiences of neglect, ignorance, and inferiority are one explanation for this. This paper explores the link between the experiences of households in a state of energy poverty and their trust in institutions and social networks. Using qualitative data from ten different European countries, we show that a lack of trust in both public and private institutions is widespread among energy-poor households. Our interviewees show distrust in various dimensions. In their contacts with institutions, they report experiences of powerlessness, bad and unfair treatment, and feelings of inferiority. While some interviewees do trust single individuals within institutions, others trust only their own social networks and some have no trust in anyone. We further show how trust in networks or (people in) institutions can strengthen the coping capacities of energy-poor households while a lack of trust even cuts people off from the support they could attain and thus deepens their state of energy poverty., This work was supported by the European COST scheme [grant number CA 16232].

This chapter analyses which categories are mobilised by residents to describe the social groups in their area and which normative assessments are attached to those descriptions. This intersectionality approach allows one to see social stratification at work in how inhabitants of diverse neighbourhoods in Leipzig, Paris, and Athens perceive, describe, and judge their social environment. The three cities that are analysed represent different histories of diversification, and all three of them have experienced societal disruptions and change. The residents' own positionality shapes how they categorise other residents and judge their social environment. Moreover, the construction of social groups in diverse neighbourhoods in these cities draws on a variety of rather classic social categories and is influenced by national discourses. Stigmatisation often occurs at the intersections of these categories. Also, neighbourhood change is an important factor in the construction of social groups.

Interest in urban shrinkage has steadily grown among scholars worldwide and Germany has received great attention in shrinkage-related research. Little has been written, however, about how the discussion of urban shrinkage has shaped policy responses and vice versa. This paper seeks to fill this gap with respect to the German experience by examining the relationship between (1) the state and conditions of shrinkage, (2) the discussion, and (3) the design and implementation of policies to address the challenges posed by shrinkage. Covering a time span from the 1970s to today, we explore four distinct chronological phases of this triangular relationship. Particular focus is directed to the rapid shrinkage trajectory of eastern Germany in the 1990s, which was seen as a particularly critical challenge, and which was addressed nationally by public policies through the unique development program known as Stadtumbau Ost . Based on our analysis, we conclude that the phases of the German experience identified represent paradigmatic situations that can be found elsewhere, and thus provide insight into why debates on urban shrinkage emerge, how they result in policies and vice versa and, finally, what can be learnt from this great body of knowledge.

Der Artikel beschreibt die Bindung von 40 Klein- und Kleinstunternehmen an ihre Standorte in zwei Leipziger Quartieren. Ausgehend von einer Darstellung der wissenschaftlichen Debatte zu Theorien lokaler Okonomie und ihren Bezugen zur Quartiersforschung wird prasentiert, wie lokale Unternehmer/innen sich an ihr Quartier binden, welche Unterschiede es zwischen ihnen gibt und welche Strategien sie im Umgang mit dem Bewohner- und Quartierswandel in der Groswohnsiedlung Leipzig Grunau und dem Grunderzeitviertel Leipziger Osten entwickelt haben. Die qualitative Studie macht deutlich, dass das Quartier unterschiedliche Funktionen fur verschiedene Unternehmen ausubt und die Bindung an das Quartier vielschichtig ist und nicht linear. In Leipzig ist der Wandel im Quartier in den jeweiligen gesamtstadtischen und historischen Kontext eingebettet und somit durch ausere Faktoren beeinflusst. Die Kapazitaten der Unternehmen, sich im Sinne der lokalen Okonomie aktiv in die Quartiersentwicklung einzubringen, sind begrenzt - wobei die Dimension Zeit (fur Geschaftsfuhrung, Unternehmensentwicklung, Fordermittelbeantragung, Netzwerkarbeit im Quartier, Erholung und Entspannung) bei den untersuchten Leipziger Klein- und Kleinstunternehmen grundsatzlich rar und die Arbeitsbelastung hoch ist. Abschliesend reflektiert der Artikel die empirischen Erkenntnisse im Kontext der Debatten zu Quartiers- und lokale Okonomieforschung sowie der Stadtebauforderung.

Thermal renovation (retrofit) of residential buildings is one of the major issues in the transition to a low-carbon energy system. This paper argues that the specific conditions in shrinking middle-size cities create an especially difficult environment for energy renovations. Using empirical data from the shrinking City of Delitzsch, Germany, it is hypothesized that buildings with poor energy efficiency are often inhabited by tenants or owners who impede retrofit activities due to their socio-economic conditions. The research analyzes the relation between buildings with a high potential for final energy reduction and a concentration of low-income, older or empty-nest households. The analysis examines this relation not only on an aggregated city level but also on the level of the city's districts to identify renovation ‘hot spots’ in the city. Specific challenges are identified for building renovations in shrinking cities due to a high concentration of possible barriers in the relevant housing stoc...

This article analyses how policies to foster social cohesion within diverse and unequal urban contexts are affected by New Public Management and austerity policies. Based on the analysis of a handful of governance arrangements in three cities that differ in their institutional structure and diversity policy approaches (Copenhagen, Leipzig and Milan), it is shown that negative effects are quite widespread yet cushioned by a strong welfare state structure, solid local government and high priority given to the recognition of diversity. Nevertheless, the shift towards the application of market logic to social work reduces innovative potential, increases efforts spent on procedures and weakens public coordination. This article analyses how policies to foster social cohesion within diverse and unequal urban contexts are affected by New Public Management and austerity policies. Based on the analysis of a handful of governance arrangements in three cities that differ in their institutional structure and diversity policy approaches (Copenhagen, Leipzig and Milan), it is shown that negative effects are quite widespread yet cushioned by a strong welfare state structure, solid local government and high priority given to the recognition of diversity. Nevertheless, the shift towards the application of market logic to social work reduces innovative potential, increases efforts spent on procedures and weakens public coordination.

Der Beitrag beschaftigt sich mit der Wechselwirkung zwischen lokaler Okonomie, dem Quartier bzw. seinem raumlich-zeitlichen Wandel und seiner Spezifik. Anhand zweier Fallstudien aus Leipzig soll dargestellt werden, unter welchen Bedingungen lokale Unternehmen wirtschaften, welche Rolle das Quartier als Bezugsund Kundeneinzugsraum einnimmt, welche Faktoren auf den okonomischen Erfolg oder Misserfolg einwirken und wie Angebote der Wirtschaftsforderung wahrgenommen werden. Im Fokus der kontrastierenden Analyse stehen die Situation unterschiedlicher Unternehmenstypen in unterschiedlichen wirtschaftlichen Sektoren sowie der Einfluss des Quartierskontextes bzw. des Quartierswandels.

For decades, public and scholarly debates on large, post-war housing estates in western Europe have been concerned with social decline. After 1989/1990, the point in time of fundamental societal change in eastern Europe, this concern was transferred to estates in post-socialist cities. However, empirical evidence for a general negative trend has not emerged. Recent publications confirm the persistence of social mix and highlight the differentiated trajectories of estates. This paper aims to contribute to an approach of how to conceptually make sense of these differentiated trajectories. Using data from a unique longitudinal survey in East Germany, starting in 1979, we investigate the state of social mix, drivers of social change and the inner differentiation in the housing estate Leipzig-Grünau. We found no proof for a dramatic social decline, rather there is evidence for a slow and multi-faceted change in the social and demographic structure of the residents contributing to a gradual social fragmentation of the estate. This is a result of path dependencies, strategic planning effects and ownership structures. We discuss these drivers of large housing estate trajectories and their related impacts by adapting a framework of multiple, overlapping institutional, social and urban post-socialist transformations. We suggest embedding the framework in a wider and a local context in which transformations need to be seen. In conclusion, we argue for a theoretical debate that makes sense of contextual differences within such transformations.

Neighborhood research today is largely concerned with two central aspects of neighborhood development: gentrification and decline. This paper sets out to enrich the discourse on neighborhood change, especially that concerned with so-called declining neighborhoods, by drawing on assemblage and complexity theories. These approaches emphasize processes, interdependencies, uncertainties, surprising shifts, and feedback loops in the production of specific spatial formations. We apply this framework in an examination of the development of two neighborhoods in Leipzig: an inner-city district and a large housing estate. We identify internal and external factors impacting these neighborhoods’ trajectories and demonstrate how various multidirectional shifts are crucial to the specific paths—and the understanding—of these neighborhoods’ development. From a conceptual perspective, we advocate for the use of assemblage thinking in addition to existing approaches to neighborhood change.

In this article, we contribute to a better understanding of contextual differences related to residential segregation. We illuminate one specific contextual factor—housing oversupply—and how it intersects with historically inherited patterns of socio-spatial differentiation and other drivers of residential segregation. The study is based on an analysis of how segregation has developed over the last 20 years in the city of Leipzig, Germany. This case offers the rare possibility of studying the impact of city-wide housing oversupply on residential segregation, rather than concentrating on decline or decay in specific areas. We examine how oversupply emerged at the meeting point of changes in market structures, housing preferences, welfare state interventions, and migration trends in the post-socialist transition. Using existing statistical data, we demonstrate how oversupply has fostered a fast and thorough reshuffling of residential patterns. After a period of resolving segregation patterns from the social...

Nach 1990 erlebten ostdeutsche Groswohnsiedlungen die Abwanderung groser Teile der Bevolkerung und Stigmatisierung von ausen. Seit der Jahrtausendwende jedoch begann fur viele grosere ostdeutsche Stadte eine Phase der Stabilisierung und Zunahme der Bevolkerungszahlen. Durch diesen Zuwachs verandert sich die Bevolkerungszusammensetzung in den Groswohnsiedlungen in demographischer, ethnischer und sozio-okonomischer Hinsicht, eine neue Heterogenitat entsteht, die den sozialen Zusammenhalt herausfordert.

This chapter describes that the inability to pay for energy costs results from a complex state of deprivation, in which a variety of disprivileging characteristics of a household intersect and further interact with external conditions. It focuses on theoretical work combined with an exploratory secondary analysis of existing data on households in a state of energy-related deprivation. The German debate reveals the necessity to think beyond the classic 'triad' of energy poverty drivers to include other social characteristics of households, the overlap of these characteristics with policies and institutional practices, and how this leads to a constellation of energy deprivation. Qualitative research has an important place in intersectional research because it allows for the detection of mechanisms of deprivation via in-depth studies. The intersectionality approach proves to be rich in inspiration. The question about how intersectionality thinking can be integrated into empirical work that tries to depict deprivation or discrimination thus arises.

Die energetische Sanierung von Wohnhäusern wird in vielen Städten vorangetrieben. Was im Hinblick auf Energieeffizienz sinnvoll ist, kann aufgrund steigender Mietkosten zu einer Verdrängung der alteingesessenen Bewohner(innen) führen. Damit energetische Sanierung nicht dazu beiträgt, soziale Ungleichheiten auf Stadt- und Quartiersebene zu erhöhen, bedarf es sozialpolitischer Regelungen und Förderinstrumente. Doch fehlt noch eine fundierte Datenbasis, die es erlaubt, entsprechende Empfehlungen zu geben.

In debates related to energy poverty, the link to questions of residential segregation remains somewhat peripheral. Because, usually, only energy-poor households are at the focus and residential mobility is not addressed, the interdependencies between households’ energy costs and the residential segregation of cities remain out of sight. Concern that energy efficiency measures could foster socio-spatial segregation in cities has recently emerged in Germany. If only households with higher incomes can afford housing with high energy efficiency standards, whereas low income households tend to choose non-refurbished but, in sum, more affordable housing stock, an increasing concentration of poor households in poor housing conditions would result. German energy efficiency and CO2 reduction policies are relatively insensitive to such questions. Using survey data from a small shrinking city in Germany, we explore how energy costs are interrelated with residential location decisions and, thus, with segregation processes and patterns. Shrinking cities represent an interesting case because, here, a decreasing demand for housing stimulates residential mobility and paves the way for dynamic reconfigurations of socio-spatial patterns. We found that energy-related aspects of homes play a role in location decisions. Low income households seek to minimize housing costs in general, paying specific attention to heating systems, thermal insulation and costs. Resulting segregation effects depend very much on where affordable and, at the same time, energy-efficient housing stock is spatially concentrated in cities. These findings should be taken into consideration for future policies on energy in existing dwellings.

Since the second half of the 20th century, urban shrinkage has become a common pathway of transformation for many large cities across the globe. Although the appearance of shrinkage is fairly universal—typically manifested in dwindling population, emerging vacant spaces, and the underuse of existing urban infrastructure, ranging from schools and parks to water pipelines—its essence is hidden from view. Phenomena related to shrinkage have been discussed predominantly using terms such as decline, decay, blight, abandonment, disurbanization, urban crisis, and demographic change. Amongst others, these concepts were typically related to specific national contexts, installed in distinct explanatory frameworks, based around diverging normative accounts, ultimately leading to very different policy implications. Yet there is still a lack of conceptualization and integration of shrinkage into the wider theoretical debates in human geography, town and country planning, urban and regional studies, and social sciences at large. The problem here is not only to explain how shrinkage comes about, but also to study shrinkage as a process: simultaneously as a presupposition, a medium, and an outcome of continually changing social relationships. If we wish to understand shrinkage in a specific location, we need to integrate theoretical explanations with historical trajectories, as well as to combine these with a study of the specific impacts caused by shrinkage and to analyse the policy environment in which these processes take place. The authors apply an integrative model which maps the entire process across different contexts and independently of local or national specifics; it covers causes, impacts, responses, and feedback loops, and the interrelations between these aspects. The model does not ‘explain’ shrinkage in every case: instead, it builds a framework into which place-specific and time-specific explanations can be embedded. It is thus a heuristics that enables communication, if not comparison, across different contexts. With the help of this model, the authors hope to find a way in which shrinkage can be studied both in a conceptually rigorous and in an historically specific way. Instead of an invariant ‘process of shrinkage’, they portray a ‘pluralist world of shrinkages’. Keywords: urban shrinkage, local trajectories, debates on shrinkage, heuristic model

We propose a framework for simulating the individual-specific exposure as an indicator for the environmental quality of urban regions. Adopting the perspective of a moving individual we combined maps of urban temperature with algorithms simulating human mobility. The former were derived from thermal-scan data gathered with an aeroplane and calibrated with air temperatures observed at 1.5 m height. The agent-based mobility models utilize different forms of random movement and agenda-driven movement and comprise potential field controlled walk (PTW), reference point mobility model (RPM), RPM with a pre-defined daily agenda of targets (RPMA), and truncated Levy flights (TLF). Defining the distribution of exposure increments (temperature exposure at every time step; in K/min) as an indicator, we studied its dependence on both mobility and urban spatial temperature distribution by help of simulation models. We found that the mobility algorithms PTW and TLF can generate non-ergodic trajectories, i.e., a runner performing many consecutive journeys and an ensemble of walkers have different distributions of exposure increments. Thus, the temperature-exposure of individuals highly depends on their mobility patterns. This result is consistent with a previous benzene-study that generated likewise very different levels of personal exposure depending on the type of mobility. For both maps the PTW algorithm has the potential to generate unique movement patterns that can result in individual-specific exposure. A conclusion is that the temperature recorded by mobile receptors is a suitable indicator for the thermal exposure of people living in an urban region. Heat maps may show significant differences with respect to individual exposure. The cumulative distribution of temperature exposure provides information about the hazard of heat for individuals living in the studied environment. We suggest mobile measurements for an exploration of the urban environment, as they involve individual-specific mobility in a natural way and provide records of how much of an environmental agent arrives directly at human receptors.

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.

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.

Social cohesion always appears more frequently as a policy goal of the European strategy that promotes the integration of spatial, economic, and social dimensions of growth. This comprehensive approach also has to deal with the social consequences of demographic change, tackle urban poverty, and guarantee access to amenities in isolated neighbourhoods. Such objectives represent specific challenges for shrinking cities, where processes of population decline, job losses and economic constraints as well as financial restrictions create a much more complicated starting position and might make the achievement of the social cohesion even more difficult than in non-shrinking cities. Set against this background, this paper analyses the efforts of three shrinking cities (Ostrava, Genoa, Leipzig) to promote social cohesion under the condition of urban shrinkage, and examines which policies are being promoted to solve problems such as ethnic segregation, ageing, and socio-spatial inequalities. The results ...

Large housing estates are an important part of the built environment worldwide. They provide residence for millions of people. Within Europe, the debate surrounding such estates is largely concerned with social decline. During the last two decades, many large estates in Germany have experienced striking changes related to a declining and ageing population as well as housing conditions. Trends towards urban shrinkage have caused new challenges for urban and neighbourhood development. Induced by the post-socialist transition after 1990, former East German estates, in particular, had to face far reaching changes related to outmigration, decreased demand for housing and infrastructure as well as an overall ageing of the population. Set against this background, questions about the future potentials of these estates go beyond social decline. Instead, the impact of demographic change and questions of long-term demand gain importance. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on how a declining and aging population impacts upon the composition of the population within a particular estate. Additionally, we are interested in how the residential satisfaction in the estate has changed over time and which target groups are attracted to the estates. This paper discusses these questions by using results from a unique sociological long-term survey carried out over 30 years in a large housing estate in Leipzig, eastern Germany. We show that rapid social decline has not yet been an issue in the estate, and residential satisfaction has grown and reached high levels among remaining residents. However, demographic characteristics have changed tremendously. This study found that social and demographic shifts are interwoven, so that the extent to which this stability can be maintained in the future is presently unclear.

The issue of urban shrinkage has become the new ‘normal’ across Europe: a large number of urban areas find themselves amongst the cities losing population. According to recent studies, almost 42 per cent of all large European cities are currently shrinking. In eastern Europe, shrinking cities have formed the overwhelming majority – here, three out of four cities report a decrease in population. Shrinkage has proved to be a very diverse and complex phenomenon. In our understanding, a considerable and constant loss of population by an urban area classifies it as a shrinking city. So, while the indicator of shrinkage used here is rather simple, the nature of the process and its causes and consequences for the affected urban areas are multifaceted and need to be explained and understood in further detail. Set against this background, the article presents, first, urban shrinkage as both spatially and temporally uneven. Second, this article shows that the causes of urban shrinkage are as varied as they are numerous. We explore the ‘pluralist world of urban shrinkage’ in the European Union and beyond. The article provides an original process model of urban shrinkage, bringing together its causes, impacts and dynamics, and setting them in the context of locally based urban trajectories. The main argument of this arrticle is that there is no ‘grand explanatory heuristics’ of shrinkage; a ‘one-size-fits-all’ explanatory approach to shrinkage cannot deliver. To progress and remain relevant, one ought to move away from outcome-orientated towards process-orientated research on urban shrinkage.

In this paper, we use data from a longitudinal study to draw a realistic picture of the housing conditions and future potential of large housing estates with a focus on demographic change. In doing so, we plead for a broader look at demographic dynamics: going beyond ageing and population loss to encompass changes of household size and compositions or diverse mobility patterns. Our empirical results, generated in the large housing estate of Leipzig-Grunau in eastern Germany, show huge changes in the demographic characteristics of estate residents within just 30 years, especially faster aging, a steep decline in household size, and a rapidly growing share of one-person households. Years of outmigration have caused a massive overall population loss that only recently came to a halt. Nevertheless, we are also able to provide evidence that a wide range of demographic groups still live in this estate and appreciate the living conditions in terms of housing, service facilities and recreation areas. The changes ...

Climate projections for Leipzig suggest elevated minimum and maximum temperatures as well as more frequent days with high temperatures. Hence, climate change is threatening human well-being and health. People spend the majority of their time indoors. Therefore, indoor temperatures (especially during the night) are of special importance with respect to well-being and health. Indoor air temperature depends on outdoor air temperatures, but is for example modified by type of urban structure, housing area, and may be also influenced by differences in the behavior of the inhabitants. Especially in cities, outdoor air temperatures depend on urban structure e.g. housing density, building arrangement, unpaved areas, types of urban structures, urban green, and other factors. Hence, the questions arise how types of urban structures are related to inner-urban temperature differences and how outdoor air temperatures influence indoor temperatures in dependence on urban housing conditions. This work is a part of a pilot study conducted during the summer 2010 which gathered data from remote sensing, mobile measurements, stationary measurements of air temperatures and relative humidity in areas with different housing structures, and of indoor as well as outdoor temperatures in occupied apartments. Household-survey data reported the subjective perception of heat stress. The study resulted in rather complex relationships between type of housing areas, indoor and outdoor temperatures, morning and evening temperatures, indoor and outdoor temperatures as well as subjective heat perception. Green spaces and types of residential areas are related to air temperatures. More green resulted in lower temperatures. Temperatures have a tendency to increase with increasing story number and are significantly higher in the top floor. An indoor heat island effect corresponding to the outdoor effect could be shown for the homes: Distance to city center is a predicting variable for both outdoor and indoor air temperatures. The subjective feeling of heat strain did not clearly reflect measured temperature differences but varies according to adaptation behavior. Indoor evening temperatures are most strongly related to heat perception. Indoor and outdoor temperatures are not clearly correlated because of several modifying factors. The results of this study underline the importance of conservation and development of building structures and types of urban structures which stay abreast of changes by global warming. In this context, special attention has to be paid to indoor temperatures.

Hitzebelastung ist in der aktuellen deutschen wie auch internationalen Debatte zur Anpassung der Stadte an den Klimawandel eines der Top-Themen. Zusammen mit Starkregen, Hochwasser oder Sturmen werden sommerliche Hitzewellen als die Klimafolgen benannt, auf die sich Stadte vorbereiten mussen. Aus sozialwissenschaftlicher Sicht sind einerseits die Unsicherheit uber die zu erwartenden Klimaveranderungen und andererseits die Komplexitat der Klimafolgen die Hauptherausforderungen fur die Anpassung der Gesellschaft an den Klimawandel.

In many European countries, rising energy prices and depleting resources decrease the affordability of electric and heat energy for poor households (e.g. Scarpellini et al. 2015; Kolokotsa and Santamouris 2014)). The topic has been taken up in parts of the political arena in Europe following the UK’s example (Bouzarovski et al. 2012),especially in those countries where the affordability of energy has decreased drastically, such as in Greece (see Vatavali and Chatzikonstantinou in this volume) or Bulgaria, where skyrocketing energy prizes contributed to the fall of the government in 2013 (Parkinson, 2013). As Grosmann et al. (2014) and Haas (in this volume) show, the political debate in other countries such as Germany did not focus on the problems of households being overburdened by energy costs.

Energiearmut wird in der internationalen und auch in der beginnenden deutschen Debatte recht quantitativ konzipiert. In Grosbritannien, einem Land das auf eine lange Beschaft igung mit dem Thema zuruckblickt, ringt man seit der Veroffentlichung des Hills-Reports um den treffenden Ansatz der Operationalisierung und Messung fur Energiearmut. Zur Debatte steht, ob man weiter der 10 %-Regel nach Boardman folgen sollte, die von Hills vorgeschlagenen Definition der doppelten Thresholds annehmen oder weitere rechnerische Varianten entwickeln sollte (siehe Imbert et al. in diesem Band, Uberblick zu Definitionen und Messung in Moore 2012).

Energiekosten sind in europaischen Stadten ungleich verteilt. Schaut man auf die Debatten in verschiedenen europaischen Landern, wird klar, dass zumeist einkommensschwachere Haushalte besonders hohe Energiekostenbelastungen haben. Ursache dafur ist, dass diese sich oft mals nur die Wohnbestande mit dem schlechtesten energetischen Standard leisten konnen.