Shrinking Cities

From Great Britain, Belgium, Finland, and Italy to Russia, Kazakhstan, and China, cities are shrinking everywhere. While urban-planning debates of recent years have mainly focused on the growth of the megalopolis, in other places zones of shrinkage were actually developing. Enormous population losses and high unemployment contribute to this process, which is further accelerated by globalization and the transition to post-Socialism. This book examines the causes and dynamics of the shrinking process for the first time on an international level. Citing concrete examples from Manchester and Liverpool in Great Britain, Detroit in the United States, Ivanovo in Russia, and Halle and Leipzig in Germany, it compares living conditions and cultural change in shrinking urban regions. Artistic intercessions help sensitize the public to a global phenomenon which poses a completely new social challenge. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-1481-5) Exhibition schedule: Biennale di Venezia, Venice, September 10-November 19, 2006 · University of Tokyo with AkiDeCo Museum, Tokyo, fall 2006 · Pratt Manhattan Gallery/Van Alen Institute, New York, November 2006-February 2007 · Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills/Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, February-March 2007 · afoundation, Greenland Street, Liverpool, summer 2007 · E-Werk, Saarbrücken, fall 2007 · Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt/Main, November 2007-January 2008 · Pro Arte Institute in cooperation with State Museum of History St. Petersburg, spring 2008 · And further venues