Journal Article

From Long-Term Shrinkage to Re-Growth? The Urban Development Trajectories of Liverpool and Leipzig

Rink, Dieter, Cocks, Matthew, Grossmann, Katrin, Haase, Annegret, Couch, Chris

2012

Overview

Whereas many cities in Europe experience a continuous process of urban growth, a considerable number of others have experienced long periods of urban shrinkage over recent decades. In many such cities this process is ongoing. However, in between these two poles of growth or shrinkage, there are cities with less pronounced trajectories. One such type is cities that underwent a phase of shrinkage but have more recently seen a recovery in population numbers. This 'turnaround' from shrinkage towards a stabilization, or even re-growth, has been increasingly reflected in the literature in recent years. Set against this background, the paper discusses and analyses the urban development trajectories of two European cities - Leipzig in Germany and Liverpool in the UK - cities of a similar size that underwent a phase of long-term shrinkage from the 1930s until the late 1990s (Leipzig), and even the 2000s (Liverpool). Recently, while both cities have stabilized their populations, and have seen a modest growth of some thousand people per year, this success has been heavily dependent on external public investment and cannot be explained simply by the assertions of popular urban development models.

• Publisher: Alexandrine Press
• Subject: Built environments / Cities / City politics / Depopulation / Housing / Population growth / Reurbanization / Socioeconomics / Trajectories / Urban development