This book examines the causes and dynamics of the shrinking process for the first time on an international level. Citing concrete examples from Manchester and Liverpool in Great Britain, Detroit in the United States, Ivanovo in Russia, and Halle and Leipzig in Germany, it compares living conditions and cultural change in shrinking urban regions. Artistic intercessions help sensitize the public to a global phenomenon which poses a completely new social challenge.

From Great Britain, Belgium, Finland, and Italy to Russia, Kazakhstan, and China, cities are shrinking everywhere. While urban-planning debates of recent years have mainly focused on the growth of the megalopolis, in other places zones of shrinkage were actually developing. Enormous population losses and high unemployment contribute to this process, which is further accelerated by globalization and the transition to post-Socialism.

This book examines the causes and dynamics of the shrinking process for the first time on an international level. Citing concrete examples from Manchester and Liverpool in Great Britain, Detroit in the United States, Ivanovo in Russia, and Halle and Leipzig in Germany, it compares living conditions and cultural change in shrinking urban regions. Artistic intercessions help sensitize the public to a global phenomenon which poses a completely new social challenge.

With texts by Regina Bittner, Robert Fishman, Dave Haslam, Wolfgang Kil, Walter Prigge, Klaus Ronneberger, Barbara Steiner, Thomas J. Sugrue