Does One Decade of Urban Policy for the Shrinking City Make Visible Progress in Urban Re-Urbanization? A Case Study of Bytom, Poland

Iwona Kantor-Pietraga

doi:10.3390/su13084408

Abstract

Planning and managing the declining fortunes of shrinking cities are essential in shaping urban policy in post-industrial urban societies, especially in Central and Eastern European states. Many studies emphasize city management and redevelopment as important policy constituencies for driving revitalization. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about policy-making and the underlying political and socio-economic disagreements that impact successful measures to reverse urbanization and regenerate post-industrial cities. This paper provides a case of urban policy-making for Bytom—a severely shrinking city in southern Poland. This article aims to clarify the mismatch between the city’s policy and the socio-economic situation Bytom after 2010. This discrepancy could have weakened effective policy to address shrinkage and revitalization. Statistical and cartographic methods (choropleth maps) helped analyze the socio-economic changes in Bytom and its shrinking. The issues related to the city’s policy were based primarily on free-form interviews and the analysis of municipal and regional documents concerning Bytom. The conducted research shows the need for concerted and coordinated policy direction that considers the real possibilities of implementing pro-development projects. Such expectations also result from the opinions of local communities. Finding a compromise between the idea of active support for projects implemented in a shrinking city and an appropriate urban policy is expected. Such an approach also requires further strengthening of social and economic participation in local and regional governance.

Highlights

Finding a compromise between the idea of active support for projects implemented in a shrinking city and an appropriate urban policy is expected
The first is more general and focuses on total reflection—what guidelines should create a shrinking city’s urban policy? This way, the question provides the background for further extending the question—whether urban shrinkage is sometimes difficult to solve because it is still not always necessary in the urban agenda
There is a third case in which urban shrinkage is in the agenda-setting

Summary

Introduction

The de-urbanization cities are essential elements of the discourse on the economic and social transformation in Central and Eastern Europe [1,2,3]. This issue is significant in those shrinking cities, where the demographic decline results from a profound and advanced transformation of the economic system. This phenomenon most often leads to depopulation and economic crisis in the vicinity of such a city [4,5,6].

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Discussion

Conclusion