On the Economic Base of the European City

Abstract

European cities’ growth rates were strikingly different in the decades 1950-1990, during the long phase of macro-economic expansion and controlled institutional evolution ensured by the construction of the European. To the extent that most cities were anyway following a development trajectory with increasing per-capita well-being the focus could be mainly on attaining a satisfying degree of social cohesion. The ‘economic base issue’ resurfaced in the European in the 1990s. Firstly, the institutional and economic transition in Central and Eastern Europe was associated with the collapse of the ‘economic bases’ in most cities of this territory. Secondly, urban and territorial crisis began to be apparent in an increasing number of EU countries. It was no longer a matter of different but positive growth rates in cities’ economic bases, but rather a matter of stagnation and decline. The increasing manifestations of urban and territorial crisis have shifted the focus of strategic planning from spatial to economic issues. A variety of policy responses to decline and stagnation in European cities’ economic bases have been proposed and an optimistic attitude towards the capacity of cities to maintain, restructure, and expand their economic bases has consolidated. This optimism seems to be grounded in a stereotyped understanding of the forces that shape the long-run growth and development trajectories of European cities.