The shrinking city phenomenon is a multidimensional process that affects cities, parts of cities or metropolitan areas around the world that have experienced dramatic decline in their economic and social bases. Shrinkage is not a new phenomenon in the study of cities. However, shrinking cities lack the precision of systemic analysis where other factors now at work are analysed: the new economy, globalisation, aging population (a new population transition) and other factors related to the search for quality of life or a safer environment. This volume places shrinking cities in a global perspective, setting the context for in-depth case studies of cities within Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Germany, France, Great Britain, South Korea, Australia, and the USA, which consider specific economic, social, environmental, cultural and land-use issues.

Section I: Shrinkage in a Global Perspective 1. Introduction Karina Pallagst, Cristina Martinez-Fernandez and Thorsten Wiechmann 2. Theoretical Approaches of "Shrinking Cities" Emmanuèle Cunningham-Sabot, Ivonne Audirac, Sylvie Fol and Cristina Martinez-Fernandez Section II: Urban Change and the Role of Shrinkage 3. Shrinking Cities in the United States in Historical Perspective: A Research Note Robert A. Beauregard 4. Shrinking Cities in the Fourth Urban Revolution? Ivonne Audirac 5. The Interdependence of Shrinking and Growing: Processes of Urban Transformation in the USA in the Rust Belt and Beyond Karina Pallagst 6. The Restructuring of Declining Suburbs in the Paris Region Marie-Fleur Albecker and Sylvie Fol 7. Growth Paradigm Against Urban Shrinkage: A Standardised Fight? The Cases of Glasgow (UK) and Saint-Etienne (France) Emmanuèle Cunningham-Sabot and Hélène Roth 8. Making Places in Increasingly Empty Spaces: Dealing With Shrinkage in Post-Socialist Cities: The Example of East Germany Thorsten Wiechmann, Anne Volkmann and Sandra Schmitz 9. The Nagasaki Model of Community-Governance: Grassroots Partnership with Local Government Hiroshi Yahagi 10. Shrinkage and Expansion in Peri-Urban China: Exploratory Case Study from Jiangsu Province Chung-Tong Wu, Xiao-Lin Zhang, Gong-Hao Cui and Shu-Ping Cui 11. A Cluster of the Four Coal Mining Cities in Korea from a Global Perspective: How Did the People Overcome a Crisis After a Massive Closure of Mines? Dong-Chun Shin 12. From "Up North" to "Down Under": Dynamics of Shrinkage in Mining Communities in Canada and Australia Laura Schatz, David Leadbeater, Cristina Martinez-Fernandez and Tamara Weyman 13. Analytic Implications of the Corporate Town Atenquique and Its Shrinkage, Economic and Environmental Decline José G. Vargas-Hernández 14. Inequality and Urban Shrinkage: A Close Relationship in Brazil Sergio Torres Moraes Section III: Strategic and Policy Implications 15. Emerging Regeneration Strategies in the US, Europe and Japan Jasmin Aber and Hiroshi Yahagi 16. Environmental Sustainability Issues for Shrinking Cities: US and Europe Helen Mulligan 17. Closing Thoughts Cristina Martinez-Fernandez, Karina Pallagst and Thorsten Wiechmann