Shrinking geographies or challenged rurality’s? Three points of reflection – commentary to Syssner

Abstract

By asking ‘what could geographers do for shrinking geographies’ Josefina Syssner offers a very comprehensive overview of what has been and should be on the research agenda’s for understanding rural shrinking geographies. In this commentary I would like to address three issues related to the Fennia keynote, that may add an additional perspective or a moment of reflection: 1) the issue of demographic change, rather than shrinkage, 2) how we can imagine the future of shrinking geographies, and 3) what Nordic perspectives have to offer. In conclusion, I believe that peripheral geographies, and challenged rurality’s deserve a key position within geography and related disciplines, and call for a repolitisation of the topic: what we research, how we conceptualise or even advice has consequences for those living and imagining futures in peripheral, rural and depopulating regions.

What can geographers do for shrinking geographies?

“…Makkonen, Inkinen and Rautiainen (2022) suggest that population data can be combined with data on employment and/or housing vacancies to give a more detailed picture of the state of affairs in an area. Meijer (2022) points out that because of migration and the post-pandemic situation, we can now observe how formerly shrinking regions have started to grow -without any signs of increases in prosperity.…”

“…Of course, one could question whether it is really lower numbers of people that bring problems to the table in shrinking areas, or whether it is the surplus of older people and the shortage of tax-paying people of working age that is the main issue. In her commentary on this paper, Meijer (2022) rightly asks whether the research community should perhaps abandon the concept of shrinkage, and rather focus on the challenges that come with certain forms of population change.…”

“…This is in contrast with papers from Japan, where urban decay is the most frequently mentioned effect of shrinkage (in 61% of the papers). As noted by Meijer (2022) , the consequences of shrinkage are very much context dependent. Societies that undergo demographic decline, and that lack social capital or beneficial networks, tend to suffer more from decline than others (Meijer 2020).…”

“…Some, however, point to the difficult aspects of being a place primarily for older people. In her commentary on my paper, Meijer (2022) refers to arguments made by Steinführer and Grossmann (2021) and reminds us about the hidden dynamics of old-age immigration. While monitoring the consequences of population change in small towns in Germany, they observe that migration balances in those towns were mostly negative, even if the towns -somewhat surprisingly -turned out to be target locations for old-age migration.…”

Depopulation and shrinkage in a Northern context: geographical perspectives, spatial processes and policies

“…The three scientific commentaries by Marlies Meijer, Sunna Kovanen, and Marika Kettunen and Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola critically discuss the keynote article by Josefina Syssner (2022). Meijer's (2022) commentary Shrinking geographies or challenged rurality's? Three points of reflection -commentary to Syssner stresses that peripheral geographies and challenged ruralities deserve a key position within geography and that the topic of shrinkage needs to be repoliticised -both in terms of what we research and what advice we offer to those living in peripheral, rural and depopulating regions.…”