Supporting Shrinkage : Better Planning and Decision Making for Legacy Cities

Demonstrates how residents can play a leading role in the positive transformation of their communities in the face of economic and population decline.

Supporting Shrinkage describes a new approach to citizen-engaged, community-focused planning methods and technologies for cities and regions facing decline, disinvestment, shrinkage, and social and physical distress. The volume evaluates the benefits and costs of a wide range of analytic approaches for designing policy and planning interventions for shrinking cities and distressed communities. These include collaborative planning, social media, civic technology, game design, analytics, decision modeling and decision support, and spatial analysis. The authors present case studies of three US cities addressing shrinkage and decline, with a focus on issues of social justice, democratization of knowledge, and local empowerment. Proposed as a solution is an approach that puts community engagement and empowerment at the center, combined with data and technology innovations. The authors argue that decisions informed by qualitative and quantitative data and analytic methods, implemented through accessible and affordable technologies, and based on notions of social impact and social justice, can enable residents to play a leading role in the positive transformation of shrinking cities and distressed communities.

Michael P. Johnson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Justin B. Hollander is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. Eliza W. Kinsey is Associate Research Scientist in Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. George R. Chichirau is Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Northeastern University.