New peripheries in the making? Analysing German cities from the lens of a suburbanisation of poverty

Abstract

In this paper we discuss evidence on new socio-spatial patterns in the relation between urban and suburban areas due to the involuntary outward residential mobility of low-income households from central urban areas. Our findings build upon research in three German cities from a comparative perspective, with interviews with local experts providing the main source of information. For analysing decentralisation or suburbanisation of poverty processes we focus on the role of the urban housing market, residential settlement changes, and the role of social security systems. We cannot confirm the displacement of low-income households beyond city limits as a general trend. Instead, our findings reveal a local and context-dependent variation of socio-spatial shifts in the three investigated cities, related to city-specific housing market and urban development factors. As a general factor, existing social security systems continue to work towards keeping low-income households inside cities, seemingly preventing a large-scale suburbanisation of poverty. There is, however, a worrying trend in the concentration of low-income households in ever-decreasing segments of affordable housing, alongside increasing burdens on low-income households coping with the current challenges of a housing affordability crisis. City-regional monitoring and further research are needed.