Analysis of Demographic Changes in Urban Decline and Shrinkage

Introduction

Shrinking cities are a global phenomenon no limited to region, regime, or culture of industrial development. The appearance of shrinking cities phenomenon is global (Audirac 2007). The urban decline has been analyzed as a global phenomenon (Oswalt 2006), assuming there has been, and it had been a need for urban growth (Logan and Molotch 1987). Most shrinking cities operate under the assumption that they will continue growing and do not accept that the number of inhabitants is dwindling. Shrinking cities is a global phenomenon that has appeared in urban areas that experimented with sustained growth.

Increasing urban decline and shrinkage are global phenomena with structural and durable components of urban development, change and growth. Urban shrinkage may result from cities' participation and involvement in the global networks of production chains (Castells 2000, 2002). Economic globalization is a cause of the decline and shrinkage of some industrial cities which do not keep the pace of technological change and do not develop the integration capacity to join into global networks (Scott and Storper 2003). The cities that do not set this capacity to integrate into the global economic networks are affected by the process of economic decline and shrinkage (Audirac 2007).

The phenomena of urban decline and urban shrinkage have an impact on a globalized economy (Cunningham-Sabot and Fol 2009). In the spatial fabric, the concept of black holes in urban territories is related to the phenomenon of urban decline in globalization processes, which is a phenomenon of global shrinkage characterized by its emergence in some regions of the world. The urban shrinkage process is a worldwide phenomenon expanding in scope and new forms (Audirac 2007). The shrinking cities is a global-spatial and multidimensional phenomenon in which urban decline is only one phase of evolution after cities had experienced growth.

The rise of the urban shrinkage phenomenon can be explained as a spatial fix (Harvey 2000), by the relocation of manufacturing plants that large corporations do as a response to the financial crisis, the search for new and cheap resources, as well as markets. Reduction of production factors: labor, capital, organization, and technical progress contribute to accelerating the shrinkage of the cities and the decline of its relative economic development (Fol & Cunningham-Sabot, 2010). Global networks of production, distribution, marketing, and consumption have a relevant impact on urban shrinkage spatial

Urban decline, considered as urban shrinkage, is analyzed as social and evolving political constructs (Wilson and Woulters 2003) and economic, social, and political functions (Beauregard 2003). Urban decline, depopulation, and abandonment are processes of shrinking cities considered features of urban forms and environments for the required theoretical and practical intervention (Dewar & Thomas, 2013; Hollander & Németh, 2011; Mallach, 2012; Smith & Kirkpatrick, 2015).