Introduction: The Shrinking City Phenomenon

Abstract

Global urban development is currently characterized by varied combination of metropolitan growth and urban core shrinkage. Simultaneously with metropolitan expansion, shrinking cities have emerged in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries as a crisis. From the 1960s, cities around the globe have faced shrinkage in population due to various factors like deindustrialization, suburbanization, and post-socialism. While much of the shrinkage is concentrated in central cities, edge cities and suburbs are now facing the same problem. This book explores whether Warren, a first suburb of Detroit, can offer valuable lessons to address this crisis in the urban periphery. Specific opportunities can be imagined at the shrinking edge of large central cities in terms of strategic location, diverse housing choices, and large spaces for green infrastructure.