The growing awareness on urban shrinkage as a problem for cities in Europe and parts of the US has led to a number of studies and research projects on why these cities are losing population and how to deal with this. Despite the significant differences in the extent and spatial distributions of population decrease between Europe and the US, shrinkage can usually be attributed to post-industrial transformation processes due to the decline of the manufacturing industry. In Germany the effects of declining birth rates and the German reunification are additional factors for urban shrinkage.

PlanShrinking makes use of this phenomenon and of these fundamental changes in urban development patterns to study the ways planning systems adapt to the challenges urban shrinkage imposes on the existing planning culture. The project makes use of an embedded case study approach. Embedded case studies will facilitate in-depth investigations of the stakeholders involved in shrinking cities - their motivations, actions, opportunities, and the limits they are confronted with.

The project aims on identifying paradigm shifts and possible changes in planning systems and planning cultures in shrinking cities in Germany and the USA. Furthermore, a toolset to evaluate planning strategies for shrinking cities will be developed. PlanShrinking has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme as part of a Marie-Curie International Reintegration Grant (IRC).

PlanShrinking was finished 31 October 2014.

Project title: PlanShrinking: Planning Cultures in the USA and in Germany in Comparison - The Example of Shrinking Cities
Grant agreement number: 268296
Duration: 11/2010 - 10/2014

Project coordinator: Prof. Dr. habil. Karina M. Pallagst, Department International Planning Systems, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau

This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme as part of a Marie-Curie International Reintegration Grant under the grant agreement n° 268296.