Seba Asaaied’s scientific contributions

Current debates in urban development display a rising awareness that several cities in Europe and the US have to deal with challenges of long-term demographic and economic changes leading to urban shrinkage associated with housing vacancies, underused infrastructure and other negative impacts (Pallagst et al, 2013). In recent planning debates the term ‘shrinking city’ usually describes a densely populated urban area that has on the one hand faced a considerable population loss, and is, on the other hand, currently undergoing profound economic transformations, with some symptoms of a structural crisis (Pallagst, 2008). However, on an international scale it is still not clear if and how planning paradigms, planning systems, planning strategies and planning cultures are being adapted when faced with the dynamics of urban shrinkage (Pallagst et al, 2012). This paper introduces evidence from an EU funded project, investigating German and US-American shrinking cities regarding both realms, planning cultures and shrinking cities. Based on an analytical frame, the US cases Youngstown/OH, and Flint/MI, and the German cases Kaiserslautern and Zwickau, all of them affected by vast structural changes, will be presented regarding their respective planning strategies and policy options for dealing with shrinkage. Particular focus lies on the question if and how the shrinking cities phenomenon has triggered changes in planning cultures over the years. References PALLAGST, K. (2008), Shrinking cities  planning challenges from an international perspective’, Urban Infill, Themenheft -‘Cities Growing Smaller’,1, 6-16. PALLAGST, K: ET AL (2012) Shrinking Cities and planning cultures – theoretical and methodological considerations for evidence-based research, presentation at the AESOP congress, Ankara, July 11, 2012. PALLAGST, K. ET AL (2013), Shrinking cities: international perspectives and policy implications, London/ New York. Routledge.