Declining Suburbs in Europe and Latin America

Abstract

Suburban shrinkage, understood as a degenerative urban process stemming from the demise of the Fordist mode of urbanism, is generally manifested in a decline in population, industry and employment. It is also intimately linked to the global restructuring of industrial organization associated with the rise of the post-Fordist mode of urbanism and, more recently, the thrust of Asian industrialization. Framed in the discourse of industrial urbanism, this article examines the first ring of industrial suburbs that developed around large cities in their most rapid Fordist urbanization phase. These industrial suburbs, although they were formed at different times, are today experiencing specific mutations and undergoing profound restructuring on account of their particular spatial position between the central area and the expanding peripheries of the post-Fordist metropolis. This article describes and compares suburban decline in two European cities (Glasgow and Paris) and two Latin American Cities (São Paulo, Brazil and Guadalajara, Mexico), as different instances of places asymmetrically and fragmentarily integrated into the geography of globalization.

The mechanisms of subnational population growth and decline in New Zealand 1976-2013

“…Globally, population growth is theorized to end around the end of the present century, but much sooner across the developed world (Lutz, Sanderson & Sherbov 2004;Davoudi, Wishardt & Strange 2010;Reher 2007, Lee & Reher 2011. Reports from newly depopulating countries such as Japan are largely negative, indicating reduced investment in local infrastructure, widespread abandonment of schools, homes and business, and general social, economic and environmental damage outside of the main cities; at the same time, opportunities arising from a potential 'depopulation dividend' (Matanle 2017) need to be engaged with in a timely manner, long before local councils and similar agencies are overwhelmed with sustained depopulation that they have not been anticipating (Matanle & Sato 2010;Audirac 2012;Martinez-Fernandez, Kubo, Noya & Weyman 2012;McMillan 2016).…”

The Role of Government Policies and Strategies Behind the Shrinking Urban Core in an Expanding City Region: The Case of Izmir

“…Evidence of this can be found mainly in US cities, where urban shrinkage has often occurred in a doughnut pattern, with the city centre becoming hollow as the population moves out of the metropolitan core and/or inner suburbs to the outer suburbs in search of affordable housing (Booth, 1987;Fishman, 1987;Friedrichs, 1993;Metzger, 2000;Gallagher, 2004;Pallagst & Wiechmann, 2005). Recently, the innerring suburbs of many US metropolitan regions have witnessed suburban shrinkage (Albecker, 2011;Audirac et al, 2012). In Europe, Glasgow and fast-growing regions in the South of France (Marseille, Avignon, Toulon and Perpignan) (Puentes & Warren, 2006; are some examples of urban shrinkage within urban areas that are growing as a whole, with peripheral settlements growing at the expense of the urban core.…”

“…While its causes have been documented in a large body of literature with reference to demographic change, economic transformation and suburbanization, recent discussions have been from the perspective of globalization, which is usually associated with a declining economy and a deterioration of urban areas due to a loss of competitiveness. It is argued that the global reorganization of production has been the major underlying cause of shrinkage in many industrial cities, leaving them in the position of being unable to find a niche in the current competitive global economy (see also Audirac et al, 2012;Martinez-Fernandez et al, 2012a, p. 214, 2012b.…”

Global suburbia and the transition century: Physical suburbs in the long term

“…The international suburban and housing literatures has a long tradition of work on suburban disadvantage and isolation (e.g. Maher, 1994;Moran, 2011;Orfield, 2002;Audirac et al, 2012;Hebert et al 2012).…”

“…This will require some rapprochement from all sides although there are many encouraging signs (e.g. Audirac et al, 2012;Beard et al, 2008;Chattopadhyay, 2012;Clapson and Hutchinson, 2010;Gans, 2009;Harris, 2010;Song and Ding, 2009;Watson, 2009;Wu and Phelps, 2008).…”