The German urban planner Sulzer stated in an interview with Der Spiegel (2006): ‘Population decline… I can’t bear to hear these words anymore. I don’t think it is relevant that a few houses are empty. Let’s look ahead and not demolish everything—that is a last resort’. Fed up with the East German discussion on population decline, Sulzer pleas for a replacement of ‘shrinking cities’ in favour of ‘waiting cities’—‘cities that wait, slumber until their hidden qualities are discovered’ (p. 115). Sulzer actually does have a point: specifically decline and social changes contain questions of a long-term perspective that benefit from looking ahead instead of looking back. Decline forces us towards a different way of thinking, towards reflection, towards a future vision on the physical, economic, ecological, social, cultural, and political quality of living.

How do we want to live, work, and recreate in fifteen years, and what do we need to attain this? Which facilities are indispensable, which must be changed, and which can disappear altogether? Which investments are demanded and who does what? These are all questions of which the answers are not clear. However, we can do a few educated guesses and suggestions. These guesses suggest that decline is not an indication of stagnation but rather a source of innovative thinking and modernising. The ideas and suggestions in this chapter are related to demographic decline. However, this does not mean that they are only applicable to depopulated areas. If, for example, more physical space has opened up due to population decline, we are forced to reflect on the use of space. The ideas that arise from this reflection are also useful for growing areas. Depopulated areas can function as laboratories for other areas that decline in a later stage.

7.1 Population Decline and Physical Quality

In terms of physical qualities, we will restrict ourselves to housing. Vacancy and demolition, the collapse of the housing market, depreciation of property, and lack of flow (people are unable to sell their homes) are all typical decline issues. However, population decline also offers opportunities for alternative ways of filling the available space. Previously, we indicated that when houses and other buildings open up we must be careful with demolition. The constructed environment is not only a ‘stone’ surrounding, but it also represents a ‘cultivated’ environment (Boomkens 2006). A house has more than only economic value, it also involves historical, familiar, emotional, cultural, and social value. These additional values are often overlooked in discussions on the decreasing property value in depopulated areas. The default reasoning reads: the economic value decreases with a surplus of houses—the scarcity of the labour market is lifted—and in order to safeguard the property value demolition must take place. In fact, this economic and technical perspective on vacancy and the built environment are quite one-sided and actually only takes the functional value of a house into account. Demolition eventually leads to a restoration of traditional economic market principles.

By adding the broader value-perspective to the functional value of a house (e.g. the state of the house and its parts, the quality of the stucco and the gutters) a new vision on area development emerges. It is important to add both perspectives together. The functional dimension of living has been completely taken over by the producers of houses over the last century: architects, construction engineers, housing corporations, project developers, and contractors—in short: the professionals. They possess the technical knowledge, know the regulations, and are able to calculate the construction price per cubic metre. The professionals produce a house with the future resident being the consumer. However, people want more than just a house; they want a ‘home’: a place that they experience as their own territory where they can move freely and where people can leave imprints of themselves—in a street with the same terraced houses wherein the décor differs in each one of them. In other words: people add value to a house. Decline makes it possible to bring housing production and housing consumption closer together in the restructuring due to the absence of traditional market principles. This can be done by allowing (aspiring) residents, builders, and renovators to work together in an early stage; the result is active citizenship and the co-creation of the built environment.

This partnership between builders and residents can lead to a larger variety in construction forms and construction styles. For a depopulated area this creates a unique opportunity to modernise and to distinguish itself from other areas. The latter is of interest because an environment based on growth principles has ample space and people are forced to rethink the refurbishment of space. The refurbishment must distinguish itself in giving people the opportunity to establish new identifications with an area, new forms of identities, and new forms of bonding—issues that are important for regions that are facing an emigration surplus. Thematic residential complexes that are developed in growth areas can serve as examples: Le Midi in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Brandevoort in the Dutch municipality Helmond (Meier 2009). The people live happily here, and the out-migration is limited. However, houses and flats that need work—shell homes that are sold or rented at a relatively low price—offer the opportunity to produce their own physical environment via co-creation. Take for example, the Belgian city of Genk where the creative class has transformed former mining buildings into contemporary work environments.

Finally, the concept of the compact city for depopulated areas may be a source of inspiration. We already saw in Chap. 3 that growth areas tend to divide the space into tightly marked functions: living, working, and recreating are divided, and human proceedings are segregated. In a built environment this segregation is strengthened by decline—think of the metaphorical perforated city (Beeck 2011). In depopulated areas it is crucial that the space is ‘de-functionalised’ as much as possible. Living, working, and recreating must be concentrated. Only then can a city or village maintain its core. Only then can residents focus on established orientation points where they can go to and visit each other. Centres form the basis of public space and facilitate human contact. Both are important for the development of social capital and a vital civil society.

7.2 Population Decline and Ecological Quality

The ecological quality of an area is closely tied to physical quality. Environment and space form a kind of Siamese twin. Depopulating areas generally profile themselves as green, quiet, and spacious in the hope of attracting new residents and visitors.Footnote 1 Depopulated areas should apply this green, quietness, and space to their own population, like we see in the ‘Cittaslow’ network (Chap. 5). Population decline offers the opportunity to redefine the spatial environment. Sustainability, new raw materials, new energy, and ‘cradle-to-cradle’ are, therefore, key concepts. Take the villages Hästekasen (Sweden), Jühnde (Germany), and Vasse (the Netherlands), where citizens use population decline to experiment with local power generation. Sustainability is a theme that is also of interest in growth regions. Being a transition area, a declining environment is perfectly suitable as an ecological incubator.

In a publication of research centre RiBuilt (2010) an ecological prospect of depopulated areas is outlined. The central question is what the Dutch province of Limburg will look like in 2050. ‘Urban areas have been transformed from consumption centres into producing environments. Everything is about renewable energy; urban farming has been integrated partially on roofs in greenhouses that create a pleasant garden in the spring and fall. Mobility is effectively divided and only occupies half of the space. That space is utilised by natural water treatment, recreation and greenery integrated as production for biological raw materials (…). On a regional scale, food, in particular slow food, has become a major driving force. The people value local products and have discovered new eating habits and dishes. Meat is only eaten once in a while; algae and insects are processed into protein-rich products’ (p. 3). In the dream world of ecologists, an after-decline-era cannot be better worded. The target: a person who no longer exhausts the world, but lives harmoniously in their environment. Due to depopulation cities could become green oases and commuting might be decreased by people working close by in business complexes.

The ecological opportunities of decline can also form an impulse for economic innovation. To achieve this, they must satisfy two conditions. First, a better connection is needed between ecology and urban culture. Many of the dreams of being green and sustainability are reasonably anti-urban while specifically the cities take care of social, cultural, economic, and political dynamics. Cities exist by the grace of contradictions: poor and rich, young and old, winners and losers, an arrived upper layer and a fighting-for-survival under layer—these tensions form the fuel, the sustainable energy of the city. Heterogeneity and diversity are the characteristics of urbanity. ‘Only in the city can communities like art and science grow next to business. Only in a city can an immigrant culture, a gay culture, a homeless culture, an entertainment culture, and a mobility culture develop itself’ (Reverda 2004, p. 122). Reconciliation between ecologic ideals and urban tensions is needed to prevent views from becoming no more than green oases in a non-ecologic dessert. In other words: how can we link sustainable thinking to an urban lifestyle?

Second, ecology demands behavioural change. If people want to establish sustainable villages and cities, then they must invest in the attitude of people who are going to live there. Take the EVA-Lanxmeer district in the Dutch municipality of Culemborg: it is an ecologic ‘responsible’ district that is fully supported by the people that live there (Sustainable Urban Design 2005). In a way, the residents are selected on their behaviour towards the district. This makes the district special: only people live there who consciously identify themselves with the sustainable qualities of their residential and living environment. This formula, however, is not applicable everywhere. On the one hand, a certain selection of ‘supporters’ (binding social capital) has taken place and, on the other hand, a large number of depopulating areas are socioeconomically weak. In these areas there is often more talk of poverty than elsewhere, the people die younger than elsewhere, and feel less responsible for the direct living environment. These areas will first have to be socioeconomically strengthened before space is available for the implementation of ecological ideals. There is still a significant gap between aspiration and reality.

7.3 Population Decline and Economic Quality

Depopulated areas are areas in transition; and areas in transition are economically interesting. What opportunities does population decline offer in terms of economic quality? At first sight, decline seems to be a disaster for the local and regional economy: shops have to close due to a lack of customers or problems with succession, while companies look for their future elsewhere due to a lack of labour force and talent. What remains is a traditionalistic and inwardly focussed population—hardly an attractive investment and business climate for new business. In some cases, economic circumstances also lead to decline, in particular in areas with a mono-structure. The dependence upon a single economic activity makes areas vulnerable, also non-economically. For these types of regions, seeking sufficient economic differentiation and variation is an important task (Jacobs 1969).

Notwithstanding or perhaps due to the abovementioned issues, a depopulating region offers plenty of opportunities for business and innovation. Decline makes for creativity: entrepreneurs who are confronted with population decline are challenged to innovate. Therefore, it is obvious to experiment with new technology to enable services provision from a distance. Digital shopping centres from the living room can partly replace physical facilities. Houses can be stabilised against demographic decline by connecting them with the broadband network. Digital shopping, digital ‘live’ access to concerts, digital doctor consultation—these ‘e-services’ already exist, but in a depopulated region they can contribute significantly to the quality of life. If ageing puts home care under pressure (not just because of budget cuts, but also due to a lack of manpower), then household robots can make life a little bit easier. The administration of declining municipalities would be wise to provide their territory with a broadband network and to present themselves as a ‘playground’ of technological innovation; population decline as an incentive to economic modernising.

Depopulated regions also offer space for new forms of business that deviate from the conventional market economy. Depopulated areas are characterised by a ‘surplus’: there is too much of everything—too many schools, too many houses, too much infrastructure, etc. Things that people have too much of are, however, also exchangeable. Social economies are exchange economies where not the profit maximisation but the principle of equity reigns. They promote the economic independence of stakeholders by developing a network where goods and services are exchanged. A social economy is naturally local or regional, and the members within the network have a direct say in decision making and policy implementation. Social economies are by definition anchored in the sociocultural context where they originate from. Not only because they lean on local or regional networks, but also because the exchange system exists of nothing more than the present talents, competencies and skills. The human and social capital of a sociocultural network forms the substantial base of a social economy (Elsen and Walliman 1998).

Local and regional exchange systems appeal to people’s talents and strengths. They are activated on the basis of what those persons can do. This could be a variety of things: fixing household equipment, babysitting, fixing tyres, painting houses, working in the garden or offering vegetables from their own vegetable garden. However, giving language or computer courses, organising debating nights, or writing a text are also all part of this system. The connected operational system is fairly simple: all that is needed is a list of names of the members, a newspaper or website with an overview of the supplied and demanded goods and services, and a simple accounting system with debit and credit registration of the exchanges. Setting up a ‘talent base’ where the constructed human and social capital becomes visible in a shrinking and ageing region would fit perfectly well in such an exchange economy. A beckoning perspective: modern depopulated regions characterised by a differentiated talent economy.

LETS as an Alternative Economy

The LETS-system is the most common system of social economy. LETS stands for ‘Local Exchange and Trading System’. It is an exchange system where the participants supply each other with goods and services and subsequently settle the bill with exchange points. People can use these points to ‘buy’ other goods and services—it represents alternative money that is only valuable within the system and can, therefore, not disappear to outside the sociocultural network (van Arkel and Peterse 1996; Ramada and van der Valk 1999). The most well-known LETS initiative in the Netherlands is ‘Noppes’ in Amsterdam. Products and services are settled in the currency ‘Noppes’. Initially, all adverts and notifications were published in the magazine of the association, the ‘Noppes paper’ and the members would pay by transferring Noppes via paper cheques. Currently, the members can study the adverts online and the ‘Noppes payments’ are mostly performed digitally. Other Dutch cities have also implemented an alternative currency to the euro: the ‘Devi’ in Deventer, the ‘Keitje’ in Amersfoort and the ‘Eco’ in Groningen; all cities in the Netherlands. We can find LETS-systems all over the world: in Nigeria, India, Japan, Belgium, Germany, Sweden etc.; as a matter of fact, there are very few countries that are not familiar with a kind of alternative local exchange economy.

7.4 Population Decline and Social Quality

We slightly discussed the social qualities in depopulated regions in the previous chapter. We stated that depopulated areas are in need of sociocultural modernising. This demands parting with traditionalism and facilitating existing talent to provide the depopulated area with new energy. This task is mainly targeted at people from the older generation. They will have to use and transform their accumulated human and social capital to guarantee the quality of life in a depopulated region. How paradoxical it may sound: specifically the elderly have to take the lead in modernising the area. This does not necessarily have to be an individual or collective decision. Population decline will force the older generation to maintain the desired standard of living and services. Decline will ‘force’ the elderly into active citizenship.

The transition from a society with many young adults to an ageing society will change civil society. With fewer people who are mostly ageing, the social infrastructure is going to have to thoroughly change in the fields of healthcare, welfare, education, culture, and sports. Education will rearrange the perspective from a society with many young adults to ageing; from education for the young adults to ‘lifelong learning’. Football clubs and other sports clubs will have to collaborate due to a decrease of pupils. Vocal societies and harmonies are condemned to each other because their members are decreasing and ageing. Especially in traditional societies, the forced collaboration, caused by population decline, will initially lead to tension and resistance, where football clubs, vocal societies and harmonies are a part of the local identity—until people see that cooperation is the only way to fill up the sociocultural infrastructure. Associative life will modernise, and multi-sports societies, multifunctional conservatories and combined culture centres will emerge. Shared use and shared ownership of an accommodation will bring former competitors together in varying compositions and governance structures. They are examples of modernisation of the traditional society: heavy club and association structures are replaced by light, network type forms, while multiple identities replace singular identifications (Zijderveld 2000). In short: the decomposing effect of decline forces civil society into collaboration.

It can be expected that residents in depopulated areas will use the opportunities of information and communication technology (ICT) more effectively. Especially in areas where fewer people live, digital communication and virtual communities provide solutions. The market will mostly take responsibility for the informative and technological aspects of ICT; society will claim the communicative aspects. Meanwhile, 91 % of the Dutch population uses the Internet and 84 % uses it daily (van Deursen and van Dijk 2011). This percentage will continue to grow. Netherlands is at the top of the European list, while in Europe as a whole Internet usage has increased to more than 63 % of the 800 million Europeans (see http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats4.htm). Virtual communities bring people together in all imaginable fields and invite interaction. The exchange of information is socially organised, whether we are talking of parents, car enthusiasts or teenagers. What should I do if my son cannot sleep at night? Which car dealer can supply me with parts for my BMW from 1952? I have fallen in love with a boy in my class: what do I do?

The laptop, smartphone, or iPad allows us to inform each other, discuss with each other, give each other advice, and gossip about others. ICT also leads to people arranging ‘live’ meetings, catch up or develop an idea. Some even say that ICT has ultimately led to more physical meetings than in the pre-ICT era (Gaspar and Glaeser 1998; Polèse 2009). ICT contributed to people meeting new people and discovering new trade perspectives. Thus, the Web is a source for the development of meaningful interactions and relationships. This refers to community development, be it in a new or in a different way. Parallel to the local community a virtual community arises where time and space, knowledge, experiences and interests are shared. The unique selling point of the Internet is that it brings people together who would otherwise never or rarely meet in real life. Special websites for the elderly, gays and lesbians, for Muslims, Jews, and Christians, for young women and motorcyclists make it possible to interact, dialogue, and act (van den Boomen 2000). This is an attractive perspective for depopulated areas that are confronted with diminishing relationships.

7.5 Population Decline and Cultural Quality

Cultural quality is related to social quality. Indeed, culture demands active participation and identity formation of citizens in the public domain. We distinguish cultural quality in a narrow sense and cultural quality in a broader sense. Cultural quality in the narrow sense represents the presence of both professional and amateur art and cultural practice in a region. Depopulated regions demand the question of how art and culture can contribute to the quality of life. Art and culture are, after all, important determinants for the attractiveness of a region. Therefore, it is always useful to invest in culture, both from above and from below. From above: by formulating local policy where creative talents receive the opportunity to expand. Facilitating the local talent and creating podiums where the talent can manifest itself delivers an important contribution to the regional living environment (Florida 2002). That ‘decline’ is thematised or can even lie at the basis of art, and culture makes it even more interesting. Examples are ‘house’ music in vacant buildings in Detroit, the ‘Design-for-Emptiness’ prize in Heerlen, the Netherlands and the annual decline lecture during the festival Cultura Nova that also takes place in Heerlen.

Cultural quality in the broader sense refers to the ways in which citizenship and identity in depopulated areas can be filled in. Again, we refer here to the transformation that depopulating regions go through and that we typed as a transition from a traditional to a modern society. In depopulated regions, citizens are asked to relate to their surroundings and subsequently form new alliances; even if it was just because the old, growth related habits no longer functioned. Other reference frameworks and identifications are necessary. Multiform role behaviour, multiple identities and differentiated loyalties make up the most important ingredients of citizenship in a depopulated area. The relation to the government changes from a waiting relationship to a relationship focussed on involvement (the critical citizen). The resulting tightness of the labour market and the pressure on facilities due to decline furthermore demands a different attitude with respect to labour (the entrepreneurial citizen). The responsibility for the direct living environment demands volunteer work, informal care, and civil initiative (the active citizen).

In a shrinking and ageing society, these critical, entrepreneurial, and active citizens are often the elderly people. ‘Critical, ‘entrepreneurial’, and ‘active’—these are terms that fit into an appeal on re-using the accumulated human and social capital of the older generation (see Chap. 8). After economic retirement, their capital becomes reasonably invisible—when someone retires they are no longer automatically addressed for their knowledge and experience like they would in a professional work situation. That is a shame, especially because older, former employees have accumulated substantial human and social capital. Depopulated regions are challenged with seeking methods for activating and addressing this hidden capital provision.

Civic Engagement in Declining Areas

Civic engagement is often seen as the way forward for declining areas. However, it is important to remain realistic here (Haase et al. 2012). Notably in large declining cities, there are some barriers to overcome before citizens are really taking the lead. After all, how to explain citizens that they have to engage for their community, when at the same time the neighbourhood is deteriorating and tariffs for utilities affected by population decline are rising? In addition, there is the risk of what Hooghe has called the ‘sour grapes’-phenomenon in citizen participation: just like the fox in Aseop’s fable imagining that the grapes that cannot be reached are sour anyway, citizens might pretend not to care for civic action, because that is ‘not for our kind of people’ (Hooghe 2001). Another problem is a difference in expectations between government and the civil society. Public officials and citizens often speak another language, reflecting the different worlds in which they live—the daily life of a citizen is another reality than the system world of a public official (Termeer et al. 2011). This can create a lot of confusion, misunderstanding and irritation. For example, citizens concerned about the traffic safety in their street can come up with the idea that an extra pedestrian crossing might be desirable. After a meeting in the community centre, they go to the city hall to ask for support. However, after a month an official at the municipality sends a letter in which the request is refused, referring to the local policy that crosswalks are not allowed in this type of street. Impersonal treatments and oversimplified reactions like ‘these are the rules’ frustrate any form of local empowerment. Also government officials must engage themselves when they want to engage the civil society as a whole. In short: it takes two to tango.

7.6 Population Decline and Political Quality

The critical, entrepreneurial, and active citizen in a depopulated area must, of course, be granted the space to develop and present themselves as such. Is this space available? This question brings us to the political quality of a depopulated area. Giving space to a citizen is not that easy. On the contrary, politicians and officials do not boast about being active in a depopulated area. Decline demands political embarrassment and is perceived as administrative failure. To compensate this, aldermen initially do anything possible to maintain the local facility level. Promises to voters that schools and swimming pools will remain opened and that shops will not be closed and that everything will be done to retain employment belong to the regular political rhetoric in depopulated areas. Many analyses of depopulated areas end in recommendations with a call to ‘strong leadership’ that would guarantee a turn in decline. In countering decline, public administration finds its legitimation: giving space to citizens does not fit into that.

Although depopulation issues are local, the solutions are often found on a regional level. Decline forces intensive, non-committal, administrative collaboration on the regional level. This is also a sore subject on the political administrative level. Closing down a primary school takes place in a particular neighbourhood, not in another and different one. Children and their parents will not be happy with the closure while the children and parents in the adjacent neighbourhood can be relieved that their school remains open (for now). The same applies to sports complexes, community centres, and cultural centres: one particular accommodation must close due to decline while the other can remain open. However, memberships decrease everywhere and the financial sources dry up: if people want to do something they must approach the neighbouring municipalities in the region to collectively seek a way to maintain the educational, sports, cultural, and social facility level, both quantitatively and qualitatively. If this regional level is the appropriate form of action, then there is no escaping administrative scale enlargement. The consequence is a redundancy of the number of public administrators and councillors. However, no one will declare themselves to be redundant. Therefore, the depopulated areas will remain administratively busy.

Yet, the relationship between citizens and politics in depopulated regions will undergo a change in a direction to a more reserved government and a more active citizenship. The reasoning is simple: the government lacks money and equipment to maintain the existing. Because of this the citizen will naturally get the space to actively contribute to the quality of the direct living environment. Maintaining the swimming pool or the cultural centre is not only an issue of the local or regional government but has also become an issue for citizens that wish to use these facilities. The government is no longer solely responsible for the problem. The citizen is involved from the outset because the solution is unachievable without their help. In growth environments, the citizen demands and the government answers—the citizen reports a problem and the ‘strong leadership’ consequently solves it. In depopulated regions, this relationship between the citizens and government is no longer maintainable. On the contrary: if we want to secure the quality of life in a depopulated region, the relationship between the government and citizens is characterised by ‘formal advice, co-decision, and self-government’ (Arnstein 1969). The ‘participation ladder’ in depopulated regions keeps moving in the direction of giving more influence and responsibility to the citizens in the public space.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, we can find several good examples of a restrained government with an active civil society. Take the concept ‘self-control’ in the municipality Peel and Maas, the Netherlands (Schmitz et al. 2010). In self-control, citizens take responsibility for the quality of their direct living environment. Citizens will go to work independently and the role of the government and social organisations (housing associations, healthcare institutions, welfare organisation, and the like) restricts itself to facilitating this process. In this way, a variety of villages in Peel and Maas have implemented a ‘village meeting’ to pay attention to issues that concern the village. The consultative body is established by the residents and serves as an information point and communication medium for residents and municipal administrators. The villages in the municipality Peel and Maas have managed to maintain their vitality due to this ‘self-control’.

We also spot government interventions in depopulated regions in other countries that are being filled with active citizenship. Take bottom-up initiatives focussed on strengthening the health and vitality of the older employees in Saxony or the project ‘Chance Zone’ in Silesia, Poland to tie young adults to the depopulated area (van den Ham and Ročak 2011). Reverting to the analytical triangle, we can state that in growth regions the government and market dominate; however, in depopulated areas, civil society is crucial for maintaining the quality of life—an observation that is quite important for the future of Europe’s urban and rural areas.