During the last three decades, the countries of the developed world have been engulfed by the 'second demographic transition', which involves new family relations, less and later marriage, declining fertility rates, population ageing, postponement of child-bearing and smaller households, among other trends. It is being increasingly argued that such population dynamics are having a powerful transformative effect on the inner city, by diversifying and redensifying its social landscapes, and creating a 'splintered' urban form. Based on the findings of a recent EU Framework 5 research project, this paper investigates the demographic contingencies of this process-also known as reurbanisation-in four European cities: Leipzig (Germany), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Bologna (Italy) and Leon (Spain). Analyses of census and municipal registry data, as well as on-site questionnaire surveys and interviews, have revealed that the reviewed cities are being populated with, and fragmented by, multiple migration trends and new household structures connected to the second demographic transition.
European inner city areas are increasingly regaining their residential attractiveness after years of decline. Although the demographic dimensions of such residential shifts are gradually being acknowledged by urban scholars, they still remain under‐researched, especially with regard to the role of household‐driven processes in the stabilisation of inner‐city neighbourhoods and the reshaping of residential perceptions, wants and needs. Given this background, our paper looks at the underlying dynamics of reurbanisation processes in different European cities. Reurbanisation is understood as a process of populating and diversifying the inner city with a variety of residential groups of different ages and socio‐economic backgrounds. We discuss why and how reurbanisation is changing inner‐city districts, while arguing that the demographic or household‐related view can lead to an improved understanding of current urban change. We demonstrate that – in contrast to a prevailing tendency to understand reurbanisation as an expression of a ‘back‐to‐the‐city’ movement – it relates more to city‐mindedness as a housing preference rather than to the actual return of suburbanites to the city. A typology of reurbanisation processes (distinguishing between different driving forces, and respective impacts on inner‐city area and housing markets) is provided, and the role of both social and demographic factors discussed. In particular, the paper examines overlaps and differences between reurbanisation and the concept of gentrification, arguing that, although they are partly driven by similar dynamics, the two processes are, in a qualitative sense, distinctive. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
During the last three decades, the household has become the focus of a wide range of sociodemographic processes, including the destabilization of traditional patterns of marriage, cohabitation and divorce; the growing fluidity of ties of kin and friendship; and increasingly complex transitions through the life course. However, these dynamics - which are often summarized under the common heading of the `second demographic transition' - have been marginalized in the mainstream geographical literature. In this paper, we draw attention to the extensive, albeit fragmented, body of sociological, economic, feminist and geographical insights into the changing social geometry of the household. Recent developments in these domains have affirmed the pivotal role of the household in shaping the geographies of gender, home and everyday life. We underline the importance of households as agents of urban transformation, arguing in favour of the further incorporation of household demography into the interpretation of contemporary urban problems and trends.
The past two decades have seen profound changes in European patterns of demographic behaviour, family formation and household structure. One aspect of the 'second demographic transition' is the appearance of new and more varied household forms, especially in the large cities. Data are analysed here for France's 10 largest cities for the period 1975-90, with particular reference to their central areas. While some continue to experience population decline through out-migration, for most the 1980s saw a reversal of their demographic fortunes, thus adding further evidence to the hypothesis of reurbanisation observed elsewhere. Analysis of household change shows large increases in numbers in most cities, even where overall population is declining. Households are becoming smaller, with up to 75 per cent of households in central cities consisting of 1 or 2 persons. The increase in 1-person households, to which particular attention is paid in this paper, has been rapid. The paper also demonstrates the decline in 'traditional families' in the cities. The rise of living alone is linked to age, gender, social status and ethnicity, with young professionals, especially women, at the cutting edge of household change.
IntroductionThis paper investigates the changing population geography of the city of Bologna, within the context of broader social and demographic shifts in the urban cores of developed-world cities. Its main aim is to examine whether the concept of gentrification, in its commonly understood meaning (see, for example, Glass, 1964;Hamnett, 1991;Smith, 1996), can adequately capture the distribution of different population structures in the inner city. We argue that these transformations are better described as`reurbanisation,' which, despite being a contested term (see Davidson and Lees, 2005), can be conceptualised as a comprehensive dynamic of improving the residential attractiveness of the inner city for a wide variety of population groups (see Buzar et al, 2005a;Haase et al, 2005a;.Reurbanisation' was first used in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a broad theoretical concept for an alternative future for cities, as opposed to what was then foreseen as accelerated`deurbanisation ' and deconcentration (van den Berg, 1982), or unbridled diurbanisation' (Klaassen et al, 1981, page 37). It was viewed as a possible fourth phase in the urban growth cycle, when growth returns to cities after the sequence of urbanisation (centralisation of population), suburbanisation (relative decentralisation), and deurbanisation (absolute decentralisation) (Haase et al, 2005a; Klaassen et al, 1981;Law, 1988;van den Berg, 1982). Our use of`reurbanisation' here is rather more specific with normative as well as analytic aspects.Many of the social groups that drive reurbanisation stem from the demographic changes encapsulated by the`second demographic transition': population ageing, low
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