Multiscalar Mechanisms of Shrinking Small-Size Cities: The Case of Kermanshah Province
Publication: Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 148, Issue 1
Abstract
Despite scattered attempts to frame the processes of population and economic decline in cities of the global South through urban shrinkage, mechanisms identified in the core studies of this concept do not easily translate into the local dynamics and expressions in these cities. This paper investigates the applicability of urban shrinkage as a conceptual tool for analyzing the intertwined processes of population and economic decline in small-size cities of the South. In doing so, we examine the multiscalar production of economic decline and population loss in Kermanshah province in Iran and the small-size city of Harsin in this province. Adopting qualitative and quantitative methods, we identify different economic and political processes at national, provincial, and county scales that play out in shaping variegated geography of population loss and gain in this province and then examine the variegated spatial patterns of population loss and gain in Harsin. The paper suggests that instead of an analytical tool, urban shrinkage can be seen more as an umbrella term for framing such dynamics, at least in small-size cities of the South. Nevertheless, the paper concludes by identifying the ways in which urban shrinkage studies can provide a fruitful contribution to such an analysis.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository online in accordance with funder data retention policies.
Data are accessible at: Gholami Gowhareh, Mohammad Reza; Tafti, Mojgan Taheri (2021), “Urban Shrinkage Dataset”, Mendeley Data, V1, doi: 10.17632/3rvfnfnxyx.1.
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Published In
Journal of Urban Planning and Development
Volume 148 • Issue 1 • March 2022
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 16, 2021
Accepted: Jul 22, 2021
Published online: Oct 26, 2021
Published in print: Mar 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Mar 26, 2022
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