THE NEW URBAN WORLD : LIFE AND DEATH AND LIFE OF CITIES. EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

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1 THE NEW URBAN WORLD : LIFE AND DEATH AND LIFE OF CITIES. EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION Daniela-Luminita Constantin*, Karima Kourtit, Peter Nijkamp Daniela-Luminita Constantin Bucharest University of Economic Studies Piata Romana 6, sector 1 Bucharest, ROMANIA Phone: danielaconstantin_2005@yahoo.com *Corresponding author Biographical Notes Daniela-Luminita Constantin is Professor of Regional Economics at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania and Director of the Research Centre for Macroeconomic and Regional Forecasting of the same university. She is the President of the Romanian Regional Science Association and member of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA) Council. She carried out numerous research stages abroad as Fulbright, DAAD, JSPS and Phare- Tempus scholar. She has authored or co-authored a large number of books and articles published in Romania and abroad and has co-ordinated many national and international research projects. Her main scientific interest concentrates on regional policies, regional convergence and competitiveness, EU structural assistance, migration, SMEs and entrepreneurship, environmental issues and human security. Karima Kourtit is researcher at the Department of Spatial Economics at the VU University Amsterdam. Her main research interests cover entrepreneurship, ethnic migration, innovation, geographic location and spatial clustering of industries including the spatial distribution of firms, cultural heritage, and sustainable regional and urban development. In recent years she has focused her research in particular on new qualitative and quantitative methods for business and policy analysis, as well as on spatial-behavioural analysis of economic agents. She also plays an active role in several nationals and international scientific networks and professional associations. From 2009 she has served as a member of the management board and now is appointed as a supportive scientific advisor of the scientific advisory board of the Joint

2 Programming Urban Europe and of various Dutch ministries. Karima Kourtit is leader and expert of various international research projects related to sustainable diversity, environmental impact of cultural heritage, and complex space-economy of sustainable urban development. In all these fields she has published books and numerous articles. Peter Nijkamp is Professor in Regional and Urban Economics and in Economic Geography at the Free University, Amsterdam. His main research interests cover plan evaluation, multicriteria analysis, regional and urban planning, transport systems analysis, mathematical modelling, technological innovation, and resource management. He is a member on the editorial boards of more than 30 journals. He has been visiting professor in many universities all over the world. He is a past president of the European Regional Science Association and of the Regional Science Association International. He is also Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. Since June 2002 he has been serving as president of the governing board of the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). In addition, he is a previous president of the European Heads of Research Councils (EUROHORCs). In 1996, he was awarded the most prestigious scientific prize in the Netherlands, the Spinoza award. Abstract This introductory article underlines various patterns of urbanization in the New Urban World as a starting point for reflections about the life and death and life of cities in the 21 st century. A particular emphasis is put on the shrinkage phenomenon and the possible recovery solutions, being highlighted that there is not just a single recipe in this respect. Relevant case studies from Central and Eastern Europe are brought into discussion, the idea of this special issue resulting from the animated debates of the plenary round table organized on this topic on the occasion of the 9 th International Conference of the Romanian Regional Science Association which took place in Galati, Romania, in May Keywords: urban century, megatrends, driving forces, shrinking cities, recovery patterns JEL Classification: R12 1. Introduction Cities are living organisms. Since the early history of mankind they have been in existence, but they were never crafted in stone as uniform species. They were created and developed by human beings who adjusted the cities to their needs. Clearly, climate, physical conditions, demography, economic developments, political events and natural catastrophes were also decisive for the morphology, the location, the size and the architecture of a city, but by far the most prominent factor in shaping a city was the human mind. Creativeness and resilience functioned as the driving forces of any urban area, or in general, of any human settlement pattern (see also Acs, 2006; Eade, 1997; Jacobs, 1961). 2

3 Nowadays we live in the urban century, which means that urbanized settlement patterns (cities, urban agglomerations, metropolitan areas and, increasingly, megacities) are becoming the dominant geographic pattern of our globalizing geography (Marcuse and van Kempen 2000). Most cities in our world tend to grow in population size and economic power. Urban areas tend to become economic, entrepreneurial, creative and political powerhouses, and compete with existing administrative demarcated borders of human settlements, be it villages or regions (see also Bruegmann, 2005; Taylor, 2009). Clearly, the control of such urban areas provokes many challenging policy and management issues, in particular since urban areas were not deliberately meant to fulfil these new roles. These urbanized areas were just the result of evolutionary behaviour and of adaptive strategies of residents and urban stakeholders. The above praise of modern urbanization has also a shadow side. Not all cities are able to keep the rapid pace of rising urbanization rates. Several cities may even lag behind (for instance, due to economic circumstances, lack of logistic connectivity or physical accessibility, unfavourable political developments, or drastic changes in demography). And in the worst cases, several cities may even shrink in population numbers or economic importance. Apart from wellknown American examples (e.g., New Orleans or Detroit), we observe such declining cities also in Europe, in particular in some peripheral areas (e.g., in Spain, Sweden, or Finland), in economically less favourable countries (e.g., Croatia or Serbia), and in various Central- and Eastern-European countries (e.g., Romania, East-Germany). Such shrinking cities do not necessarily contradict the urban century paradigm several people appear to move also from less accessible or prosperous cities to more advanced cities with a wealth of new opportunities, but shrinking cities are a sign of the vulnerability of human settlement patterns. They call for timely political responses and appropriate resilience strategies (Deakin, 2013; Oatley, 1998). When in the 1970s, cities like Pittsburgh or St. Louis went through a dramatic decline as a result of strong economic headwinds, some urban planners advocated the message: Let them die! But these cities never died, and are at present relatively flourishing areas. They acted like a phoenix. The same applies to cities like New Orleans or Detroit. After their life and (near) death, they are now starting a phase of recovery and rejuvenation, characterized by a vibrant symbiosis of many creative initiatives. Will declining European cities show a similar recovery pattern? The answer to this question is depending on a variety of driving forces: the demography, the economy, the technology, the social ecology and the policy initiatives in these urban areas (Heikkila and Kaskinoro, 2009). Of course, the time pace of a full recovery will normally be long: one 3

4 generation is not an exception. But most shrinking cities in our world have demonstrated remarkable recovery patterns, not only in the less developed parts of Europe, but also in the more prosperous parts of Europe. A good example is the city of The Hague in the Netherlands, which lost a significant part of its population in the 1970s, to the extent that the political paradigm for The Hague became planning for decline. Nowadays, the city is a booming and attractive city. Which strategies may be envisaged and developed in order to cope with shrinking cities? Urban decline policy can be distinguished into two categories, viz. preventive and abatement policies. Preventive policies refer to pro-active policies serving to avoid the emergence of a city s shrinkage. Such policies may be generic in nature (e.g., infrastructure, education, innovation, entrepreneurship, international connectivity etc.) or specific in nature (e.g., local citizens initiatives, youth employment, sports and cultural manifestations etc.). By offering a package of attractive measures a decline of the city concerned may be prevented. More difficult is an abatement policy, to be developed once a process of urban shrinkage has set in. In the first place, this calls for strong leadership and for resilient strategies of all urban stakeholders. All resources actual and potential of the city concerned have to be mobilized, ranging from new entrepreneurial initiatives to cultural heritage management. Such a quantum leap my take one or two decades, while, as shown above, a dedicated and focused urban governance initiative both public and private may pay off in the future. There is no empirical evidence that shrinking cities are a permanent and structural process. In the context of the above observations this special issue of the Romanian Journal of Regional Science offers a collection of articles on the dynamics of cities, mostly on the shrinkage of cities, with a particular view to the evolution of urban agglomerations in Central- and Eastern- Europe. To offer a relevant background for the urban development in this part of our world, we will first highlight in the next section a series of megatrends that offer a picture for the life and death of cities. 2. Megatrends and Challenges In quantitative terms, the growth and decline of human settlements is determined by population demography and spatial shifts (movements) of people (see also Pacione, 2005). This can be highlighted by means of Table 1, which depicts a range of possible configurations of dynamic patterns of urbanity and rurality. The first row of Table 1 represents a zero-sum as game: if column I decreases, columns II and III (or one of the two) will increase. This is the arche-typical case of a rise in urbanization. 4

5 The second row is more complicated: if the number of people in a given country rises, then a variety of movements of columns I, II and III is possible. The same holds for the third row; if in a given country the population size decreases, then it may happen in an extreme case that the remaining people will move to large cities, whereas in the other extreme case the remaining people may tend to move to rural areas (which is not very likely). Thus, urbanization is a multifaceted phenomenon that may exhibit a variety of rural-urban dynamic patterns (see also Kourtit et al., 2014). Table 1. A variety of urbanity and rurality patterns I II III No. Of people No. Of people in rural areas No. Of people in medium-size cities No. Of people in large cities Constant Rise Decline Source: authors proposal The question which numerical entries will appear in Table 1 depends on the drivers of the horizontal and vertical axis of the table. To offer an illustrative framework, we will distinguish here several possible illustrative, but by no means exhaustive drivers (see Kourtit et al. 2014) and we will outline for each driving force distinguished the possible impact in each of the two axes distinguished in Table 1. This is depeicted in Table 2. Table 2. Possible impact of distinguished driving forces Driving force Impact on population size and distribution 1. Globalization Increase in migration flows, especially to global attraction areas 2. Ecological sustainability Rise in spatial distribution towards less density populated areas 3. Climate change Move towards more climateneutral urban patterns of living and working 4. Network society Accelerated rise in connected city patterns reinforcing urban Impact on urban-rural division Concentration of population in urban agglomerations Increase in geographic spread towards ecologically-benign ways of life Spatial movement towards climate safe areas Trend towards connected city patterns, with less emphasis on 5

6 agglomeration peripheral areas 5. Social participation Orientation towards bonding and bridging in urban areas with Re-urbanization trends towards larger urban centres intensive communication access 6. Rise in education Trend towards increased urbanization Trend towards shrinking rural areas and towns Source: authors proposal Table 2 demonstrates that several dynamic population movements are possible, depending on the size and intensity of each of the underlying drivers. The urban century is in principle a very complex ramification of diverse spatial distributional mechanisms of people. 3. Summary of Contributions to the Special Issue We will now briefly summarize the main elements from the various contributions in this issue. In the article entitled The New Urban World The Challenge of Cities in Decline Karima Kourtit and Peter Nijkamp aim to demonstrate that the increasing population pressure and the global competition represent key factors for the upward dynamics of cities and discuss the key feature of the New Urban World paradigm. Even if various countries are confronted with a shrinking city phenomenon, the overall urbanization rate at national level is still increasing, the New Urban World being characterized by great diversity in living and working patterns, in urban land use and architecture, in urban management and governing institutions and in sustainable competitiveness on both local and international markets, in our dynamic urban century (p.12). The authors have identified specific challenges to the new city systems dynamics in terms of economy and innovation, mobility, society and ecology. Accordingly, a conceptual scheme for urban evaluation is proposed so as to assess the development of different types of cities, as a useful tool for the decision-making process. In the next paper, Tadeusz Stryjakiewicz investigates the process of urban shrinkage and its consequences from a triple perspective, namely a theoretical, empirical and practical one. He provides an analysis of the scope of urban shrinkage in Europe with a particular focus on Poland, emphasizing the demographic, economic and institutional factors that have determined this phenomenon. The importance of the regeneration strategies is discussed, pointing out the particularities determined by the systemic transformations in the former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The 'shrink smart' rule is proposed for the skilful adjustment of cities in this part of Europe, as a component of their future urban policies. 6

7 Going further, Maciej Turala brings into discussion the case of the Polish city of Lodz, which is confronted with severe structural and functional challenges derived from ongoing depopulation and the strong pressure of suburbanization. The author offers interesting insights into the statement acknowledged by both inhabitants and city planners with regard to the need of a new and unique product, able to create new value and attract development around it. He also highlights the characteristics of the ongoing large scale re-development projects in Lodz, together with a personal assessment of these projects. Keeping the focus on Central and Eastern Europe, Daniela-Luminita Constantin proposes the case of the Bucharest-Ilfov region of Romania as a relevant example of a relative winner in the current European competition. This region, with an urbanization degree of 91.6%, gravitates around Bucharest, the capital city of Romania, the author bringing evidence in favour of the shift from specialization by sector to specialization by function, which has largely attracted in the development process the surrounding Ilfov county as well as counties from the neighbouring regions. The policy options capable to consolidate the leading position of Bucharest, which currently ranks third in the top of East European cities best locations for businesses, are examined. Finally, Gabriel Pascariu and Simona Pascariu provide a case study of integrated urban development through a participatory approach, spotlighting on the Romanian city of Braila. This is a Danubian harbour city with an exciting history as a commercial node in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20 th century. In terms of urban structure its old centre displays a remarkable radial-concentric network. The authors examine the results of a project aiming at the development of an urban landscape management plan based on an integrated approach, which has concentrated on the rehabilitation of the natural and cultural heritage of the historic centre of Braila. A special emphasis is put on the implementation mechanism meant to ensure the coordination with other plans and strategies for the area concerned. The contributions offer a broad panorama of urban developments, both in the past and in current times. The evolution of cities may be highly dynamic ranging from urbexplosion to gradual rise and decline (Tellier, 2009). This also holds for the recent variation in city size in Central and Easter-European countries. Various cities show a remarkable revival (Bratislava, Budapest), while others are lagging behind. This offers an enormous policy and research challenge, as there is no single unambiguous therapy for coping with the stress on modern cities. 7

8 References Acs, Z. (ed.) (2006), The Growth of Cities, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham Bruegmann, R. (2005), Sprawl, University of Chicago Press, Chicago Deakin, M. (ed.) (2013), Smart Cities, Routledge, London Eade, J. (1997), Living the Global City, Routledge, London Heikkila, E., and Kaskinoro, H. (2009), Differential Urbanization Themes in Europe, in H.S. Geyer (ed.), International Handbook of Urban Policy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp Jacobs, J. (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York Kourtit, K., Nijkamp, P., and de Noronha, T. (2014), Cities in a Shrinking Globe, International Journal of Global Environmental Issues (forthcoming) Marcuse, P., and R. van Kempen (eds) (2000), Globalizing Cities, Blackwell, Oxford Oatley, N. (1998), Cities, Economic Competition and Urban Policy, Chapman, London Pacione, M. (2005), Urban Geography: A Global Perspective, Routledge, London Taylor, P.J. (2009), World Cities: Organizational Networking and the Global Urban Hierarchy, in H.S. Geyer (ed.), International Handbook of Urban Policy, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp Tellier, L. N. (2009), Urban World History, Presses de l Université du Quebec, Quebec 8