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Futures: as if inter and trans-disciplinarity mattered, 3 rd INTREPID Report, COST Action TD1408, 10 May, http://www.intrepid-cost.eu/intrepid-reportsand-policy-briefs/ Contents ABSTRACT .

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Cities develop according to different patterns, undergoing population growth during some periods and decline 17 (shrinkage) during others. Theories attempting to understand these behaviours include: 1) shrinkage is a natural 18 process in the life cycle of a city, alternating with periods of growth, or 2) shrinkage is an extreme event that 19 places cities into a continuous decline process with no return to population growth. We use retrospective data 20 over a period of 130 years to study 25 Portuguese cities currently facing population decline, and show that 21 both theories coexist in time and space. Five types of shrinking city are revealed: "Persistent Early Shrinkage" 22 due to exodus from the rural periphery, "Metropolitan Shrinkage" due to the challenges of urban sprawl, "Recent 23 Shrinkage" in de-industrialisation hotspots, "Cyclic Shrinkage" occurring in political transformation cores, and 24 "Mild Shrinkage" due to life-style disamenity. As diversity of city population trajectories appears to be the 25 norm in both Portugal and other Western European countries, the incorporation of this range into the 26 management of urban transitions is recommended in order to reinforce city resilience.27

The relative attractiveness of cities as places to live determines population movements in or out of them. Understanding the appealing features of a city is fundamental to local governments, particularly for cities facing population decline. Pull and push attributes of cities can include economic aspects, the availability of amenities and psychological constructs, initiating a discussion around which factors are more relevant in explaining migration. However, a pull-push approach has been underexplored in studies of shrinking cities. In the present study, we contribute to the discussion by identifying pull and push factors in Portuguese shrinking cities. Data were collected using a face-to-face questionnaire survey of 701 residents in four shrinking cities: Oporto, Barreiro, Peso da Régua and Moura. Factor analysis and automatic linear modelling were used to analyse the data. Our results support previous findings that the economic activity of a city is the most relevant feature for retaining residents. However, other characteristics specific to each city, especially those related to heritage and natural beauty, are also shown to influence a city's attractiveness as a place to live. The cause of population shrinkage is also found to influence residents' assessments of the pull and push attributes of each city. Furthermore, the results show the relevance of social ties and of place attachment to inhabitants' intention to continue living in their city of residence.

Transdisciplinarity is a demanding paradigm, considered by many in the literature as the way to move forward in terms of science and policy integration. In this paper we present the example of a tailored transdisciplinary (TD) Process to tackle a key topic of European Policy The future of agriculture at the regional level. This Phased process was followed in seven regions across Europe and involved the co-construction of future visions, engaging both researchers and a range of relevant stakeholders. This Paper presents results based on a critical reflection made by researchers and stakeholders in Portugal and Scotland, through-out the participatory process. These results provide insights into the roles and responsibilities of researchers and stakeholders in TD processes. One main conclusion is that accumulated social capital can be essential to initiate and maintain a TD process, and requires a commitment between the research community and the surrounding society. Our analysis demonstrates the challenges of implementing a TD process within the temporal frame/boundaries of a research project and the added value of having transdisciplinarity as part of the long term strategy of a research group, not just one part of a specific project. Not acknowledging this may lead to disappointment and fatigue amongst those connecting with researchers. We also found that researchers position themselves differently in a TD Process depending on their soft skills, experience and knowledge about transdisciplinarity; hence we call attention to the need to work more explicitly with these skills in the research environment and to present this concept in an early stage of researcher training, if better transdisciplinarity is to be achieved.

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