LOCAL INITIATIVES IN SHRINKING CITIES: On Normative Framings and Hidden Aspirations in Scholarly Work

Autor(en)
Leona Sandmann, Maria Gunko, Irina Shirobokova, Ria-Maria Adams, Johanna Lilius, Katrin Großmann
Abstrakt

Questions of responsibility for future-making often arise in localities where the withdrawal of capital and state seem to leave tangible voids and a sense of loss. Over the past decade, academic discourse has furthered discussions on the role of civic engagement, local initiatives and their agency under conditions of urban shrinkage. However, scholars (including ourselves) are confronted with their own normative assumptions and aspirations when conceptualizing local initiatives in shrinking cities. Through reviewing the literature on this phenomenon, we identified three main epistemological pitfalls that emerge from the legacies of planning discipline, current neoliberal developments and scholars’ own biases. By drawing from our fieldwork experiences, we conclude that local initiatives should be viewed in the plurality of their essences as extremely variegated in form and motivation. We therefore assert the need to disentangle research on local initiatives in shrinking cities from normative aspirations to avoid neoliberal responsibilization, and instead pay attention to the nuances of their aims and practices, achievements and constraints.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Institut für Geographie und Regionalforschung
Externe Organisation(en)
Unknown External Organisation Unbekannt/undefiniert, University of Oxford, City University of New York, Fachhochschule Erfurt
Journal
International Journal for Urban and Regional Research
Band
49
Seiten
214-223
Anzahl der Seiten
10
ISSN
0309-1317
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13252
Publikationsdatum
07-2024
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
507009 Örtliche Raumplanung, 504017 Kulturanthropologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Development, Sociology and Political Science, Urban Studies
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/f0499b58-a818-4ee8-a50a-4ba30384bee9