Uncovering Mechanisms for Resilience: Strategies to Counter Shrinkage in a Peripheral City in Finland

Abstract

In order to theorize the phenomenon of urban shrinkage, the paper draws from resilience theories that focus on the ability of communities to react to abrupt as well as slowly occurring disturbances. Mechanisms for resilience are defined and identified. The empirical case study is a peripherally located small city in Finland. It is a specific feature for shrinking cities in Finland that many of them, now facing the challenge of population decline, have grown to be economically dependent on the utilization and processing of natural resources, most importantly timber and minerals. Recent transformations in the global division of labour have caused employment opportunities to decline, resulting in out-migration and ageing. Due to lack of a general regional policy dealing with this issue, these cities and settlements now have to find individual strategies to adapt to these wider-scale transformations. Nevertheless, these communities have faced such situations previously and, therefore, it is possible to learn from their former adaptation strategies. The conditions under which the case city has been able to adapt to change in the past are analysed as well as the preconditions for future adaptation, thereby making it possible to refine theories of resilience and adaptability from the perspective of industrialized Northern Europe.