The worldwide trend for individuals living in urban areas traces new problems and new challenges for policy makers. Hand in hand with growing cities emerge shrinking cities. While growing cities are usually related to the improvement of quality of life, also imply crowding, unsafety, among other concerns; shrinking cities offer a particular context to improve life-styles as more space becomes available. However, cities facing population decline have to deal also with problems such as vacancy of houses, physical degradation and low social cohesion. The way public policies are conceived is determinant to ensure urban revitalisation of less appealing spaces that may appear both in growing and shrinking cities, in order to bring the opportunities provided by cities into projects that enhance citizens’ wellbeing. In fact, growth and decline can be seen as the two sides of a coin.
This number shows different policy approaches to address urban challenges, including realities of shrinking cities of Poland, Hungary and Portugal and a growing city of Ecuador.
Ana Paula Barreira
