Urban shrinkage: an unspoken challenge of spatial planning in Russian small and medium-sized cities

Batunova, Elena; Gunko, Maria

doi:10.1080/09654313.2018.1484891

Cited by 54 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The outflow of people from rural areas is a major challenge for regional policies and planning in Russia, which still strongly relies on the practices of the Soviet period and requires new approaches to deal with depopulation (Batunova and Gunko 2018;Kinossian 2013). In neoclassical economics, migration is seen as an adjustment mechanism that helps to smooth disparities among regions (Hazans 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decreasing labor intensity in agriculture and the accessibility of major cities shape the rural population decline in postsocialist Russia

Sheludkov

Kamp

Müller

2020

Eurasian Geography and Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rural population decline has been observed in most developed and emerging economies but has been especially apparent in postsocialist countries. In this paper, we investigate the spatial patterns and the determinants of the rural population dynamics during the transition period from 1991 to 2010 in Tyumen Province, Russia, with the aim of better understanding the forces underlying depopulation. We use descriptive and exploratory statistical tools to analyze data from population censuses and district-level statistics of agriculture. Our results reveal distinct differences in the spatial clusters of the population increase and decline in the first and second decades of the post-Soviet era. We argue that these differences reflect the penetration of market relations into the countryside. The emergence of market forces initially advantaged the areas that were more suited to agriculture, which experienced population growth in the 1990s. Later, the drop in agricultural output, market-driven restructuring of farms, and introduction of labor-saving technologies reduced employment in agriculture. During the 2000s, labor opportunities in agriculture were no longer statistically related to rural population dynamics, while population dynamics in the villages have increasingly been determined by transport accessibility to larger markets, especially to the provincial capital. Governments need to be sensitive to these spatial and temporal population dynamics to foster opportunities in the countryside, avoid the negative side effects of depopulation on local economies and ensure the provision of social services.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decreasing labor intensity in agriculture and the accessibility of major cities shape the rural population decline in postsocialist Russia

Sheludkov

Kamp

Müller

2020

Eurasian Geography and Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Surprisingly, urban shrinkage is not a hot debate in most of the Eastern EU countries despite being the region of the world that is most affected by this phenomenon [44,56]. This situation even inspired some east European researchers to label urban shrinkage as being the "unspoken challenge of spatial planning" [67]. But why is this happening?…”

Section: A Silent Process Eclipsed By Economic Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns of Urban Shrinkage: A Systematic Analysis of Romanian Cities (1992–2020)

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

EU post-socialist countries are nowadays the epicenter of urban shrinkage, despite economic growth trajectories reported during the last decades. However, systematic assessments of urban shrinkage patterns for this part of the continent are surprisingly insufficiently addressed in the literature, and the relationship between urban demographic decline/growth and economic decline/growth is still to be understood. This paper first delivers a state-of-the-art of the peculiarities of urban shrinkage in East-Central EU countries. Secondly, it employs an analysis grid to assess severity, prevalence, persistence, speed and regional incidence of urban decline in Romania—one of the most affected post-socialist countries within the European Union. Thirdly, it explores the statistical association between urban shrinkage severity and economic growth, on one hand, and between urban shrinkage severity and municipality revenues, on the other. Results show that urban shrinkage is currently increasing in prevalence and severity among Romanian cities, thus continuing an alarming trend that started in 1990. Secondly, the results pinpoint a statistically significant association between demographic shrinkage, local economic output and municipalities’ own-source revenues. However, the size effects are rather weak, suggesting a more nuanced relationship between economic and demographic urban growth than that predicted by some theories of urban change.

show abstract

“…In the literature, small cities in developed countries are generally presented as weak links, both at European level (Mayfield et al 2005, Bailleul et al 2019 and in various national contexts in countries such as Germany (Steinführer 2015, Swiaczny 2015, Wirth et al 2016, Russia (Batunova, Gunko 2018) or the United States (Krugman 2017).…”

Section: The Theoretical State Of the Art Of The (Divergent) Population Dynamics Of Small Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining the Dynamics of Small Towns in Western France by Testing ThWyjaśnianie dynamiki małych miast w zachodniej Francji poprzez testowanie trzech możliwych czynnikówree Possible

Baudelle

Buron

2021

rrpr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In international literature, small cities are often presented as the weak link within the urban system due to their lower growth rate and the threat of shrinking in the context of metropolisation. However their population dynamics are highly variable between places, determined by a number of factors, such as the national and regional demographic trends or the local economic base. This article proposes a regional case study on Western France, examining their demographic changes from 1990 to 2015. Three possible factors based on underlying assumptions are tested: 1. the proximity of larger cities as a possible revitalisation factor due to urban sprawl; 2. The vicinity of the coast attributed to the growing role of residential attractiveness; 3. In a more original way, the distance to a railway station as a potential factor, boosted by the recent passenger railway service strengthening. The results are counter-intuitive and the assumptions only partially validated, which invites us to reassess the relevance of the analysis of urban dynamics by size class.

show abstract

Urban shrinkage: an unspoken challenge of spatial planning in Russian small and medium-sized cities

Cited by 54 publications

References 42 publications

Decreasing labor intensity in agriculture and the accessibility of major cities shape the rural population decline in postsocialist Russia

Decreasing labor intensity in agriculture and the accessibility of major cities shape the rural population decline in postsocialist Russia

Patterns of Urban Shrinkage: A Systematic Analysis of Romanian Cities (1992–2020)

Explaining the Dynamics of Small Towns in Western France by Testing ThWyjaśnianie dynamiki małych miast w zachodniej Francji poprzez testowanie trzech możliwych czynnikówree Possible

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About