Contemporary housing preferences and related behaviour are highly diverse due to the variety of lifestyle cultures in cities, dissimilarities in residents' resources, and urban changes. In recent ...years, the Prague Metropolitan Area in Czechia has seen gradual changes in residential mobility patterns. While suburbanization remains the most significant type of residential change, other processes have emerged. The aim of the article is to examine changes in the residential mobility patterns of families with young children living in and moving between different residential zones in the Prague Metropolitan Area. Migration data relating to individuals are used to examine spatial and temporal shifts in mobility flows. Even though suburbs are still the main destination for families with young children, the authors identified a certain degree of diversification in residential behaviour. They conclude that this finding points to the emergence of reurbanization tendencies towards the housing estates and intensifying mobility within residential zones with housing that is similar in appearance.
Urban development in southern Europe differs from urbanization patterns observed in other affluent countries. Urbanization processes in the Mediterranean region reflect heterogeneous spatial forms ...and more similar socioeconomic dynamics. Rejecting a unique ‘Mediterranean city’ model, this study proposes a thorough analysis of post-war urban development in four southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) focusing on homogeneous patterns and possible sources of heterogeneity in spatio-temporal trends of individual city expansion. Urbanization without industrialization - boosted by the informal economy and the development of traditional services - has driven the growth of large cities through agglomeration economies enhanced by internal immigration. This trend has deflated shortly after the end of the baby boom, favoring slow dynamics towards spatially-balanced settlements and determining a recovery of medium-sized cities, which have been further consolidated with the economic crisis.
•Effects of single and combined processes (e.g., population growth and aging) are tested.•Changes in urban form are clearly relatable to demographic and residential preference shifts.•Urban growth ...might proceed despite population loss.•Population aging clearly affects urban dispersion and urban sprawl.•Sensitivities of urban processes on specific urban form characteristics are revealed.
We observe diverse urban development trends in European cities, with processes such as population aging, growth, shrinkage, and reurbanization having unclear consequences on land use and the urban form. The effects of these processes are especially difficult to determine when they occur quickly and simultaneously. We use varying scenarios of contrasting and exceeding variants of these urban development trends to uncover possible interactions by focusing on demographic and residential preference shifts that were simulated in a previously presented land use model (Lauf et al., 2012). Using urban form indicators and landscape metrics, we determine urban to peri-urban effects. Among other interesting results, we discovered that population aging expedited by population shrinkage greatly affects land consumption. This effect is especially pronounced in the outer city due to the residential preferences of elderly people and thereby reduces urban shrinkage. In contrast, a shift in preferences toward reurbanization reduces land consumption significantly. Population aging produces synergies in terms of urban growth and landscape fragmentation and trade-offs in terms of urban shrinkage and compactness, and the opposite holds for increasing reurbanization.
The paper addresses the ways in which the negative social connotation associated with a majority of foreigners in an Italian primary school (Carlo Pisacane, Rome) was first ‘ethnicized’ in numerical ...terms, and subsequently politically transformed into an issue of national identity. The purpose of this paper is then to show Pisacane’s attempts to transform itself from a school of immigrants into a cosmopolitan space and, to some extent, how it is unintentionally transforming itself into a cosmopolitan enclave. The proposal is therefore to rethink to Pisacane as a cosmopolitan enclave within which different forms of everyday cosmopolitanisms have the opportunity to grow and develop, together with some paradoxes and unintentional practices of exclusion. In the attempt to eradicate the opposition between being cosmopolitan and being parochial, the suggestion is to rethink to cosmopolitanism no longer as a typical phenomenon of Western “rootless” elites but rather as situated.
After the beginning of the post-socialist transformation, the eastern German city of Leipzig underwent various changes within a short time span. These changes have been especially dynamic in its ...inner city. Whereas it was hit by the loss of large parts of its population and increasing housing vacancies in the 1990s, the 2000s brought about a revitalization and new attractiveness of many inner-city districts. Since then, reurbanization and – in some places – gentrification have become the predominant trends in a rising number of inner-city districts. This development has also reshaped patterns of socio-spatial differentiation in the city as a whole and its inner parts. Set against this background, the paper describes the development of Leipzig’s inner city after 1990. The focus of the paper is it to show how various concepts – reurbanization and gentrification – help to explain this development. Of particular interest thereby is the impact of Leipzig’s specific housing market situation that is characterized by long-term experiences of supply surplus and shrinkage.
Suburbanization has been a particularly significant process in transforming the metropolitan regions in Central and East European countries in the past two decades. Many critics emphasize the ...negative consequences of suburbanization, such as a low level of residential environment quality, and some of them anticipate that suburbanites' expectations would remain unfulfilled. Moreover, a growing body of literature describes the tendency for reurbanization and discusses the importance of back-to-the city moves. Few authors, however, have paid attention to the empirical evidence of the residential stability of suburban areas. Therefore, this paper seeks to investigate the relationship between the quality of the suburban environment, the everyday life experiences associated with suburbia, and reurbanization tendencies. Various aspects of residential satisfaction and intentions to move in the medium term were analysed using data from a questionnaire survey which was carried out in three case study sites within Prague's hinterland. In addition, major differences between groups of potential "stayers" and "movers" were examined to reveal key factors which lie behind intentions to move from current suburban homes. The results suggested a relatively high degree of stability and a reasonable overall satisfaction of new suburbanites with their residential environment. They also indicated that trigger moments in the decision-making process were more closely related to the changing needs of households than the wider residential environment. Based on the research results, we were able to hypothesize that (1) a strong out-migration from the suburban zone is rather unlikely in the near future, and (2) only a small proportion of new suburbanites are likely to engage in the reurbanization process.
After having lost population for some decades, many cities are experiencing a new growth. This paper addresses this reurbanisation phenomenon in the case of Switzerland. It argues that the ...demographic evolution of cities is not adequately explained by the 'stages of urban development' model that tends to consider urban regions as closed systems. It should rather be analysed by unfolding the underlying mechanisms that include housing consumption as well as in- and out-migration flows. Swiss cities have gained inhabitants since 2000 thanks to international migrants, young adults, non-family households and some parts of the middle to upper class. From a demographic point of view, families' residential behaviour remains the driving force of suburbanisation so that the population growth is still higher in suburbs than in cities.
Reurbanization refers to the new demographic growth of cities that previously lost population. How can we explain such a trend reversal? This paper discusses theoretically both phases of urban ...decline and reurbanization. It examines the trajectory of Swiss cities that have moved from a period of decline (1970-2000) to a new growth (since 2000). It analyses the components behind the population evolution, discusses the socio-cultural, economic and political trends triggering or enabling reurbanization, and identifies three main results. First, reurbanization is due to several population groups: the growing international mobility of the labour force, the increasing number of non-family households (in the context of the second demographic transition) and the growing attractiveness of cities for young adults (extension of youth as a life stage). Second, reurbanization is not only housing-led (construction of dwellings due to planning strategies and real estate activities). It is also population-led: A generation replacement induces a rejuvanation of the age structure and an increase in the density of occupancy of dwellings. Third, reurbanization can be broadly interpreted as a return of cities in terms of residential aspirations, political agenda and real estate activities. As a conclusion, I outline a research agenda on reurbanization.
•Across the globe reurbanization has been a key urban policy.•Since 2001, English cities have reversed historic trends of population loss.•Growth was driven by an English urban policy focused on city ...centre revitalisation.•Despite this growth, England’s major cities remain highly deprived.•The legacy of English urban policy is more symbolic than structural.
In recent years, English cities have witnessed a reversal of their historically declining populations, particularly in central areas. Decades of loss have been replaced by a return to the city which is, in part, a result of urban policies developed by the New Labour government of 1997 to 2010. With the availability of small area data from the 2011 Census it is now possible to examine the spatial distribution of this ‘reurbanization’ and the extent to which it was driven by the phenomenon of city centre living. This paper takes as its starting point the historic Urban White Paper of 2000 and uses new population data for a group of key English cities in order to understand the scale of this return to the city. The results show that there was a population explosion within the central parts of some English cities, most notably in Manchester. The question of whether this population growth represents a successful policy outcome is addressed in the paper’s final section.
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