Petr Rumpel

According to estimates by the United Nations and the European Commission, the population of the western, northern and southern Europe has been declining for at least two decades, and the decline will continue (European Commission 2005). In addition, since the beginning of the 1990s, the demographic decline of Central and Eastern Europe as a whole has intensifi ed as a result of decreasing birth rates Rychtařikova (2000). Current demographic projections by the United Nations in recent years are predicting an overall decrease of Europe’s population from 729 million in 2000 to 628 million in 2050 (Klingholz 2009). Research by Turok and Mykhnenko (2007) shows that nearly one third of all European cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants has undergone population loss at least for one decade over the past 45 years. Some cities have been losing population since the 1960s, some even longer than that, (e.g., Leipzig, Liverpool), but most of the cities began to lose population in the period o...

Urban shrinkage has become a common pathway (not only) in post-socialist cities, which represents new challenges for traditionally growth-oriented spatial planning. Though in the post-socialist area, the situation is even worse due to prevailing weak planning culture and resulting uncoordinated development. The case of the city of Ostrava illustrates how the problem of (in)efficient infrastructure operation, and maintenance, in already fragmented urban structure is exacerbated by the growing size of urban area (through low-intensity land-use) in combination with declining size of population (due to high rate of outmigration). Shrinkage, however, is, on the intra-urban level, spatially differentiated. Population, paradoxically, most intensively declines in the least financially demanding land-uses and grows in the most expensive land-uses for public administration. As population and urban structure development prove to have strong inertia, this land-use development constitutes a grea...

In the first part, there is presented the new analytical knowledge on strategies for shrinking cities, which were pursued in our case study city regions of Leipzig (and Halle), Liverpool, Genoa, Sosnowiec (and Bytom), Ostrava and Donetsk (and Makiivka). Additionally, the ...

This paper presents results of an international comparative research project ‘Smart governance of shrinking cities in a European context’. In recent years, many European cities have experienced urban shrinkage (population decline). Whereas there has been a wealth of research into the governance of growing cities, little consideration has been given to the governance of and policy responses to shrinking cities, particularly in relation to the declining cities of post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. The aim of this paper is to compare the governance responses to shrinkage in different national contexts and assess the policy responses applied. This is done through the comparison of case studies examining the governance of shrinkage in Leipzig (Germany), Bytom (Poland), Ostrava (Czechia) and Timisoara (Romania). Two different strategies have been identified. First, Leipzig – due to its inclusion in the (former Western) German welfare state – followed a reasonably holistic strategy implemented by strong public actors focused not only on economic growth, but also on tackling issues of falling housing demand and the need to strengthen the attractivity of city centre. Second, in Ostrava, Bytom and Timisoara strategies have been inspired by neoliberal thinking, denying the important role of public sector city planning and ignoring the fact of shrinkage. In these cities, the main reply to shrinkage has been to seek economic development through the attraction of private investment (especially FDI) into the cities and using pragmatically any EU structural funding.

The aim of the paper is to describe and analyse the process of urban shrinkage and especially the governance structures, actors and policies tackling the causes of urban shrinkage of the city of Ostrava. In the theoretical chapters, both urban (city) shrinkage and urban governance are conceptualized and an operationalization of these concepts is outlined. Urban shrinkage is understood as population losses and related phenomena such as housing vacancies, underused social infrastructures or different kind of brownfields etc. The research design for empirical study draws on mixed methodology – quantitative (analysis of statistical data) and qualitative research approaches and techniques such as interviews, stakeholder workshops and participatory observations. Research questions are defined and considered to be the starting point for elaboration of empirical case studies. First, brief description of causes of urban shrinkage of the city of Ostrava in the period 1990–2011 is presented. T...

The primary aim of this paper is to contribute to current discussion, concerning the role of geography of knowledge sources in knowledge-intensive industries from the perspective of a post-communist country (the Czech Republic), with its specific cultural and historical heritage, as well as its specific institutional and policy context. The article analyses the extent, to which the theoretical conceptualization of analytical and synthetic knowledge bases could be relevant for the geography of knowledge sources, within the emerging ICT and biotech sectors, in two selected regions of the Czech Republic (Prague and Ostrava regions). Our findings confirm the existence of significant variation in the geography of knowledge sources, according to the type of knowledge base (analytical versus synthetic) and the type of knowledge itself (technological versus market knowledge). The article is an outcome of the international project “Constructing Regional Advantage: Towards State-of-the-art Re...

Jednou z významných výzev současnosti je řešení negativních důsledků divergentního vývoje regionů a vzniku nežádoucích disparit v ekonomické, sociální i environmentální sféře. Tým autorů této publikace (členů a spolupracovníků Centra městského a regionálního managementu Ostravské univerzity) předkládá jako jeden z možných nástrojů řešení tohoto problému aplikaci komplexního regionálního marketingu, a to na modelovém příkladu rurálního periferního regionu Jesenicko. Publikace je jedním z hlavních výstupů výzkumného projektu, financovaného Ministerstvem pro místní rozvoj. Obsahuje nejen aktuální teoretické poznatky, ale také reálné podmínky, včetně vnějších vlivů, které mohou přenesení konceptu regionálního marketingu do praxe rozvoje Jesenicka pozitivně i negativně ovlivnit.

The article outlines the motives and objectives of the IBA Emscher Park and briefly describes the most inspiring outputs and planning approaches from the authors’ points of view. Some critical points as well as the achievements of the IBA Emscher Park are presented more detailed, and it is explained, which principles of the IBA Emscher Park mainly contributed to the successful change of the region’s image. In order to assess the transferablility of the achieved impulses into the context of the Ostrava region in the northeastern part of the Czech Republic, the differences and similarities of the Ruhr region and the Ostrava region are characterized.

Abstract This paper is an outcome of the research project „Governance of Shrinkage within an European Context“ financed by 7th Framework Programme. The aim of the research is to study the role of policies and governance systems in different types of shrinking urban regions in Europe (Ostrava, Katovice/Bytom, Timisoara, Leipzig/Halle, Doneck/Makiivka, Genoa and Liverpool). Shrinkage is defined mainly as population loss and has become a new normality for growing number of European cities and urban regions (Turok, Mykhnenko, 2006). The research is based on comparative case studies from seven urban regions throughout Europe that will provide a basis for analyzing different trajectories of shrinkage. We will present the case study of the trajectory of shrinkage of the city Ostrava and its causes. Ostrava reached the peak of population in 1989 with 331,729 inhabitants and since then Ostrava as a whole has been losing population due to economic restructuring (especially deindustrialisation...

ABSTRACT The paper seeks to develop a comparative analysis of approaches to innovation support in three self-governing regions of the Czech Republic. Its analytical section presents an in-depth analysis of the development of innovation policies in three regions: the capital city of Prague, South Moravia and the old industrial region of Moravia-Silesia. Key dimensions of regional innovation strategy in each of the three regions are closely scrutinized and critically examined, within the context of state-of-the-art European approaches to innovation policy. Profound differences, both in approaches to innovation policy design and in the results so far achieved, have been found between the studied regions, reflecting differences in both structural and soft factors in the regions in question. Rapid progress, in terms of innovation strategy implementation, is evident in a region where strong knowledge creation capacity (in both the academic and the business spheres) exists in harmony with professional and enthusiastic key personnel in intermediary institutions as well as steady political support from regional decision-makers. The authors believe that some of their observations will have relevance for innovation policy design and implementation in other Czech regions and in other regions of the European Union’s new member states.

Th e objective of this paper is to expand the discussion concerning the old industrial regions in the context of perspective incrementalism strategy, which was implemented in the framework of IBA Emscher Park in the northern part of the Ruhr Area during 1990s. Principles and mechanisms of perspective incrementalism and project-oriented planning in the framework of IBA Emscher Park showed

Metodika je určena především pro představitele managementu územního rozvoje. Regionální adaptabilita a odolnost jimi řízených území by měla být jejich finálním cílem, profilace měkkých faktorů rozvoje pak prakticky využitelným nástrojem. Praktické využití metodiky může představitelům regionů a obcí nabídnout argumentační bázi při komunikaci důležitosti managementu územního rozvoje i jednotlivých jeho kroků. Zároveň nabízí reprezentativní sadu indikátorů pro sledování a hodnocení vývoje území i inspiraci pro praktickou podporu územního rozvoje v rámci stěžejních tematických okruhů.