Pub Date : 2026-01-17DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2025.106756
Christian Lamour
The European radical right (RR), including parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD), promotes a cultural war against liberal elites, minorities, the European Union, and extra-European migrants. This political positioning has attracted a growing share of citizens residing in urban areas affected by uneven development. However, little is known about whether and how the RR's cultural stance is addressed by representatives of the liberal elite when they define culture-driven regeneration policies in deprived areas increasingly voting for the RR. This article explores that phenomenon by analyzing the dialogic imagination produced by German cities competing for the 2025 European Capital of Culture title and engaging with a panel of experts evaluating their candidacies. Using an enunciative polyphony approach to discourse analysis, the study reveals that the cultural war advanced by the AfD infiltrates the dialogic imagination of the liberal elite responsible for shaping urban cultural policies. For the RR, winning this cultural war is not limited to gaining executive power; rather, it entails exerting influence over the reflexivity of the liberal elite.
{"title":"Polyphony for a City in Germany: Actors and enunciators of a European capital of culture in the trenches of the radical right's Kulturkampf","authors":"Christian Lamour","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106756","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106756","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The European radical right (RR), including parties such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD), promotes a cultural war against liberal elites, minorities, the European Union, and extra-European migrants. This political positioning has attracted a growing share of citizens residing in urban areas affected by uneven development. However, little is known about whether and how the RR's cultural stance is addressed by representatives of the liberal elite when they define culture-driven regeneration policies in deprived areas increasingly voting for the RR. This article explores that phenomenon by analyzing the dialogic imagination produced by German cities competing for the 2025 European Capital of Culture title and engaging with a panel of experts evaluating their candidacies. Using an enunciative polyphony approach to discourse analysis, the study reveals that the cultural war advanced by the AfD infiltrates the dialogic imagination of the liberal elite responsible for shaping urban cultural policies. For the RR, winning this cultural war is not limited to gaining executive power; rather, it entails exerting influence over the reflexivity of the liberal elite.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106756"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146037990","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
With the growing prevalence of information technologies and spatial flows, network analyses have become one of the key approaches to studying interurban mobility. However, conventional models often overlook geographic contexts by simplifying flows into abstract nodes and edges. In this study, we leverage the 2018 Tencent mobile positioning data to construct an integrated “point–line–area” framework that can connect flow space with geographic space. A novel SCᵢ index is introduced to identify influential source-convergences and detect points with high-intensity radiation-like flow aggregation. Key flow corridors are extracted by using directional and distance similarity, and regional flow patterns are analyzed through nested mapping and trend surface techniques. Results not only reveal significant source-convergences in flow space, with parallel flow aggregation corridors dominated by east–west flows, but also measure the spatial evolution of flow intensity patterns across subregions. Findings highlight that, from the perspective of flow space, some planned urban agglomeration areas have yet to form multiple radiation centers, and that the key to balanced regional development lies in fostering diverse interregional connections, such as corridors.
{"title":"Unveiling pattern and structure of inter-urban mobility: Integrating flow space and geospatial information","authors":"Yue Xian , Mingxing Chen , Maogui Hu , Liangkan Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106789","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106789","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the growing prevalence of information technologies and spatial flows, network analyses have become one of the key approaches to studying interurban mobility. However, conventional models often overlook geographic contexts by simplifying flows into abstract nodes and edges. In this study, we leverage the 2018 Tencent mobile positioning data to construct an integrated “point–line–area” framework that can connect flow space with geographic space. A novel SCᵢ index is introduced to identify influential source-convergences and detect points with high-intensity radiation-like flow aggregation. Key flow corridors are extracted by using directional and distance similarity, and regional flow patterns are analyzed through nested mapping and trend surface techniques. Results not only reveal significant source-convergences in flow space, with parallel flow aggregation corridors dominated by east–west flows, but also measure the spatial evolution of flow intensity patterns across subregions. Findings highlight that, from the perspective of flow space, some planned urban agglomeration areas have yet to form multiple radiation centers, and that the key to balanced regional development lies in fostering diverse interregional connections, such as corridors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106789"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chinese Free Trade Zones (FTZs) serve as critical platforms for achieving high-level economic openness. The development of their regional image is essential for the sustainable socio-economic growth within these zones. This paper adopts the social constructivism as its theoretical perspective and establishes a comprehensive analytical framework of “self-construction”, “other-construction”, and “comprehension-construction”. It innovatively combines narrative text analysis with news big data to systematically reveal the power operation logic of discourse on the regional image. The research focuses on the Tianjin Free Trade Pilot Zone (TPFTZ), examines the influence of news big data on the regional image of the TPFTZ and evaluates the current regional image with its underlying causes. The findings reveal that news reports have shaped a regional image characterized by positive domestic coverage and negative international public opinion. Specifically, the volume of self-construction-oriented news reports is approximately 30 times higher than that of other-construction-oriented reports, reflecting a policy-driven characteristic. Other-construction-oriented news primarily highlights the economic and environmental impacts of emergencies, demonstrating an event-driven focus. In the comprehension-construction perspective, cooperation events constitute the main type of international events, potentially having a more significant positive impact on African countries, while conflict events tend to have a greater negative impact on the Americas and Africa. Overall, negative public opinion prevails, indicating a retrospective focus on specific events during a certain period. This study holds practical value for enhancing the regional image of the TPFTZ and other national-level policy zones, providing valuable insights for their sustainable development.
{"title":"Study on the regional image of China (Tianjin) pilot free trade zone from the perspective of news big data","authors":"Wenxue Xia , Guangwen Meng , Haiyu Zhang , Shufang Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106790","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106790","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Chinese Free Trade Zones (FTZs) serve as critical platforms for achieving high-level economic openness. The development of their regional image is essential for the sustainable socio-economic growth within these zones. This paper adopts the social constructivism as its theoretical perspective and establishes a comprehensive analytical framework of “self-construction”, “other-construction”, and “comprehension-construction”. It innovatively combines narrative text analysis with news big data to systematically reveal the power operation logic of discourse on the regional image. The research focuses on the Tianjin Free Trade Pilot Zone (TPFTZ), examines the influence of news big data on the regional image of the TPFTZ and evaluates the current regional image with its underlying causes. The findings reveal that news reports have shaped a regional image characterized by positive domestic coverage and negative international public opinion. Specifically, the volume of self-construction-oriented news reports is approximately 30 times higher than that of other-construction-oriented reports, reflecting a policy-driven characteristic. Other-construction-oriented news primarily highlights the economic and environmental impacts of emergencies, demonstrating an event-driven focus. In the comprehension-construction perspective, cooperation events constitute the main type of international events, potentially having a more significant positive impact on African countries, while conflict events tend to have a greater negative impact on the Americas and Africa. Overall, negative public opinion prevails, indicating a retrospective focus on specific events during a certain period. This study holds practical value for enhancing the regional image of the TPFTZ and other national-level policy zones, providing valuable insights for their sustainable development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106790"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145977706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-14DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.106786
Edwin Dunhot Simanjuntak , Ron Kerr , Winston Kwon
Emerging sustainable city concepts and best practices have provided cities with eclectic apparatuses to counter unsustainability challenges. But as cities become more susceptible to such successful practices, there is less attention on how the adopted plan materializes into a concrete scheme (or any step closer to implementation), specifically the process that affects the transition as the sustainable city ideas reach the grassroots level. We aim to fill this gap by investigating how sustainability ideas fail or succeed in gaining sufficient traction to effectuate the desired transition on the grassroots level. Inspired by the virological perspective of idea processing, we employed our reconceptualization of the virus-inspired theory by revisiting relevant epidemiological tenets, a concept that we call viral transmissibility theory. Drawing from a qualitative case of Edinburgh, we took advantage of publicly available data on three localized sustainable city strategies related to the city's Net Zero Carbon 2030 initiative and interviews. As ideas and, therefore, as viruses, we found the transition is affected by their ability to acknowledge heterogeneity in the population, receptors cognizance, and replication tactics. Our study then provides insights for city authorities and urban planners on dealing with and optimizing sustainability transition.
{"title":"Small things matter: Investigating the viral transmissibility of localized sustainable city strategies of Edinburgh net zero carbon 2030 in transition","authors":"Edwin Dunhot Simanjuntak , Ron Kerr , Winston Kwon","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106786","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106786","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Emerging sustainable city concepts and best practices have provided cities with eclectic apparatuses to counter unsustainability challenges. But as cities become more susceptible to such successful practices, there is less attention on how the adopted plan materializes into a concrete scheme (or any step closer to implementation), specifically the process that affects the transition as the sustainable city ideas reach the grassroots level. We aim to fill this gap by investigating how sustainability ideas fail or succeed in gaining sufficient traction to effectuate the desired transition on the grassroots level. Inspired by the virological perspective of idea processing, we employed our reconceptualization of the virus-inspired theory by revisiting relevant epidemiological tenets, a concept that we call viral transmissibility theory. Drawing from a qualitative case of Edinburgh, we took advantage of publicly available data on three localized sustainable city strategies related to the city's Net Zero Carbon 2030 initiative and interviews. As ideas and, therefore, as viruses, we found the transition is affected by their ability to acknowledge heterogeneity in the population, receptors cognizance, and replication tactics. Our study then provides insights for city authorities and urban planners on dealing with and optimizing sustainability transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106786"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978444","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-14DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.106793
Franklin Obeng-Odoom
Attention to, and precision in, how property rights are analysed should be cardinal to research in urban political economy. This methodology is presented in Obeng-Odoom and Haila (2024), the focus of W.C. Lai's (2025) rejoinder. Contrary to Lai's claim that our work misquoted or misunderstood his position, a close reading of the relevant texts indicates otherwise. Instead, Lai's response reflects a particular interpretation of property rights that privileges private property and Coasian traditions, often at the expense of recognising community-based and uncertified land systems, particularly in the Global South. This sequel to the debate demonstrates that the alleged ‘misquotes’ are in fact accurate, and that some of the conclusions in Lai's work rest on unsubstantiated views. We argue that property rights scholarship benefits from open debate across traditions, but suggest that alternatives to the ideology of private property deserve fuller recognition. In this spirit, the article offers a counterpoint to Lai's position by highlighting the importance of original institutional political economy in the analysis of property and property rights.
{"title":"The political economy of debating urban property rights: A response to Lai's (2025) rejoinder","authors":"Franklin Obeng-Odoom","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106793","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106793","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Attention to, and precision in, how property rights are analysed should be cardinal to research in urban political economy. This methodology is presented in <span><span>Obeng-Odoom and Haila (2024)</span></span>, the focus of W.C. <span><span>Lai's (2025)</span></span> rejoinder. Contrary to Lai's claim that our work misquoted or misunderstood his position, a close reading of the relevant texts indicates otherwise. Instead, Lai's response reflects a particular interpretation of property rights that privileges private property and Coasian traditions, often at the expense of recognising community-based and uncertified land systems, particularly in the Global South. This sequel to the debate demonstrates that the alleged ‘misquotes’ are in fact accurate, and that some of the conclusions in Lai's work rest on unsubstantiated views. We argue that property rights scholarship benefits from open debate across traditions, but suggest that alternatives to the ideology of private property deserve fuller recognition. In this spirit, the article offers a counterpoint to Lai's position by highlighting the importance of original institutional political economy in the analysis of property and property rights.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106793"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145977707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-13DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.106781
Yang Wang , Jinyu Huang , Xiaoli Yue , Jun Chu
Previous research has explored the mechanisms underlying housing vacancy. However, few studies have investigated the role of high-income population distribution in this context, particularly in rapidly expanding growth-type megacities. This study develops a theoretical framework to examine the effects of high-income population distribution on housing vacancy in the suburban areas of growth-type megacities. It empirically tests these effects using Kunming as a case study. The study investigates how the concentration of high-income populations influences non-moved-in housing vacancy rates by using beta regression analysis, mediation effect analysis, and geographically weighted regression. The results indicate that (1) the distribution of high-income populations has a significant positive effect on housing vacancy in growth-type megacities; (2) this effect operates primarily through the mediating pathways of housing supply and investment-oriented housing purchases; and (3) the effect has spatial heterogeneity, and is more pronounced in the suburbs of Kunming's main urban district. Overall, this study highlights the impact of high-income population distribution on housing vacancy in rapidly developing megacities and offers insights for optimizing urban housing policies and resource allocation.
{"title":"Effect of high-income population distribution on urban housing vacancy: A case study of Kunming, China","authors":"Yang Wang , Jinyu Huang , Xiaoli Yue , Jun Chu","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106781","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106781","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous research has explored the mechanisms underlying housing vacancy. However, few studies have investigated the role of high-income population distribution in this context, particularly in rapidly expanding growth-type megacities. This study develops a theoretical framework to examine the effects of high-income population distribution on housing vacancy in the suburban areas of growth-type megacities. It empirically tests these effects using Kunming as a case study. The study investigates how the concentration of high-income populations influences non-moved-in housing vacancy rates by using beta regression analysis, mediation effect analysis, and geographically weighted regression. The results indicate that (1) the distribution of high-income populations has a significant positive effect on housing vacancy in growth-type megacities; (2) this effect operates primarily through the mediating pathways of housing supply and investment-oriented housing purchases; and (3) the effect has spatial heterogeneity, and is more pronounced in the suburbs of Kunming's main urban district. Overall, this study highlights the impact of high-income population distribution on housing vacancy in rapidly developing megacities and offers insights for optimizing urban housing policies and resource allocation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106781"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-13DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.106796
Chang Li , Jiaying Li , Xiangbo Xu , Xiaohua Yu , Linxiu Zhang
This paper quantifies the impact of air pollution on the spatial mobility of rural labor, investigates the underlying mechanisms, and identifies the heterogeneous impacts across labor characteristics. Using panel data for 103,409 rural laborers in China from 2000 to 2015, this study employs a Heckman two-stage model combined with an instrumental variable approach. Key findings indicate that urban air quality act as a significant deterrent at the destination, rather than a push factor at the origin. While hometown pollution does not significantly drive laborers to emigrate, a 10 μg/m3 increase in a city's PM2.5 concentration is associated with a 4.30% decrease in the probability of rural labor migrating to that city. This mechanism operates through environmental regulations, which inhibit the secondary industry and promote industrial upgrading, thus altering the rural labor demand. Furthermore, the deterrent effect is more pronounced for less-educated rural laborers, particularly those employed in factories. This research offers critical insights into environmental injustice, where urban pollution-induced regulations in destination cities create ecnomic barriers to China's rural labor force. Therefore, future urbanization strategies should integrate environmental protection with inclusive labor market concerns to ensure equitable development.
{"title":"The spatial mobility of rural labor faces the environmental injustice of air pollution","authors":"Chang Li , Jiaying Li , Xiangbo Xu , Xiaohua Yu , Linxiu Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106796","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106796","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper quantifies the impact of air pollution on the spatial mobility of rural labor, investigates the underlying mechanisms, and identifies the heterogeneous impacts across labor characteristics. Using panel data for 103,409 rural laborers in China from 2000 to 2015, this study employs a Heckman two-stage model combined with an instrumental variable approach. Key findings indicate that urban air quality act as a significant deterrent at the destination, rather than a push factor at the origin. While hometown pollution does not significantly drive laborers to emigrate, a 10 μg/m<sup>3</sup> increase in a city's PM<sub>2.5</sub> concentration is associated with a 4.30% decrease in the probability of rural labor migrating to that city. This mechanism operates through environmental regulations, which inhibit the secondary industry and promote industrial upgrading, thus altering the rural labor demand. Furthermore, the deterrent effect is more pronounced for less-educated rural laborers, particularly those employed in factories. This research offers critical insights into environmental injustice, where urban pollution-induced regulations in destination cities create ecnomic barriers to China's rural labor force. Therefore, future urbanization strategies should integrate environmental protection with inclusive labor market concerns to ensure equitable development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106796"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978427","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-13DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2025.106707
Suchismita Goswami , Tejal Patil , Emmanuel Raju
Resettlement is a commonly used recovery strategy in the aftermath of disasters. However, there is very little evidence to show that resettlements lead to disaster risk reduction. Using a scoping review methodology, this paper examines the process and drivers of disaster risk creation in disaster-induced resettlement in the urban. This paper reviewed 77 studies and categorized risks (both new and pre-existing risks that are exacerbated) in urban areas. The paper also highlights the theoretical approaches used to engage with new risks. Drawing on critical disaster studies, we expand the concept of risk beyond natural hazards to include broader socio-economic and political components. The review identified 5 categories of risks in disaster-induced resettlements: 1. Loss of infrastructure and basic amenities, 2. Livelihood and economic crisis, 3. Loss of sense of community, 4. Loss of health and well-being and 5. Compounding vulnerabilities and inequalities. The paper discusses the roles of various actors and interconnected processes in the risk creation. Finally, the paper highlights gaps in the literature and provides directions for further research and practice.
{"title":"A scoping review of risk creation in disaster-induced resettlement in the urban","authors":"Suchismita Goswami , Tejal Patil , Emmanuel Raju","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106707","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2025.106707","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Resettlement is a commonly used recovery strategy in the aftermath of disasters. However, there is very little evidence to show that resettlements lead to disaster risk reduction. Using a scoping review methodology, this paper examines the process and drivers of disaster risk creation in disaster-induced resettlement in the urban. This paper reviewed 77 studies and categorized risks (both new and pre-existing risks that are exacerbated) in urban areas. The paper also highlights the theoretical approaches used to engage with new risks. Drawing on critical disaster studies, we expand the concept of risk beyond natural hazards to include broader socio-economic and political components. The review identified 5 categories of risks in disaster-induced resettlements: 1. Loss of infrastructure and basic amenities, 2. Livelihood and economic crisis, 3. Loss of sense of community, 4. Loss of health and well-being and 5. Compounding vulnerabilities and inequalities. The paper discusses the roles of various actors and interconnected processes in the risk creation. Finally, the paper highlights gaps in the literature and provides directions for further research and practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106707"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-12DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.106775
Chenfan Cai , Zixuan Hu , Jin Rui
As global urbanization enters the post-growth era, urban shrinkage has become increasingly prevalent, yet existing research often oversimplifies it as urban decline, overlooking the complexity and diversity of shrinkage processes. This study aims to systematically review global progress in shrinking cities research and reinterpret the essential characteristics and evolutionary patterns of urban shrinkage. The research employs a systematic literature review methodology, utilizing the ChatGPT-4o large language model to extract and analyze data from 183 articles, constructing an analytical framework across five dimensions: demographic-social, economic-industrial, spatial-land use, ecological-environmental, and governance-policy. The findings revealed: (1) Shrinking cities possess unique developmental logic, manifesting as complex evolutionary patterns where localized population return coexists with overall shrinkage; (2) Population flows demonstrate differentiated characteristics with out-migration of young, highly educated groups and retention of elderly, low-income populations, while some cities experience population decline coupled with sustained economic vitality; (3) Urban spatial restructuring manifests as simultaneous core decline and peripheral expansion instead of centripetal contraction alone, while abundant vacant land provides new opportunities for ecological restoration; (4) Future research should transcend simple binary frameworks, focusing on revealing the intrinsic mechanisms of localized revival, ecological equity, and multi-collaborative governance. This study unveils the knowledge structure and theoretical blind spots in shrinking cities research, providing evidence for developing more effective governance strategies for shrinking cities.
{"title":"Rethinking urban shrinkage: An LLM-enhanced literature review of global landscapes and theoretical reconstruction of shrinking cities","authors":"Chenfan Cai , Zixuan Hu , Jin Rui","doi":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106775","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cities.2026.106775","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As global urbanization enters the post-growth era, urban shrinkage has become increasingly prevalent, yet existing research often oversimplifies it as urban decline, overlooking the complexity and diversity of shrinkage processes. This study aims to systematically review global progress in shrinking cities research and reinterpret the essential characteristics and evolutionary patterns of urban shrinkage. The research employs a systematic literature review methodology, utilizing the ChatGPT-4o large language model to extract and analyze data from 183 articles, constructing an analytical framework across five dimensions: demographic-social, economic-industrial, spatial-land use, ecological-environmental, and governance-policy. The findings revealed: (1) Shrinking cities possess unique developmental logic, manifesting as complex evolutionary patterns where localized population return coexists with overall shrinkage; (2) Population flows demonstrate differentiated characteristics with out-migration of young, highly educated groups and retention of elderly, low-income populations, while some cities experience population decline coupled with sustained economic vitality; (3) Urban spatial restructuring manifests as simultaneous core decline and peripheral expansion instead of centripetal contraction alone, while abundant vacant land provides new opportunities for ecological restoration; (4) Future research should transcend simple binary frameworks, focusing on revealing the intrinsic mechanisms of localized revival, ecological equity, and multi-collaborative governance. This study unveils the knowledge structure and theoretical blind spots in shrinking cities research, providing evidence for developing more effective governance strategies for shrinking cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48405,"journal":{"name":"Cities","volume":"171 ","pages":"Article 106775"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-01-12DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.106773
Shujiang Xiang , Xianjin Huang , Atingai Ailin , Youming Dong , Meiping Li , Nana Lin , Zeyu Yi
Exploring multi-scale and multi-scenario analysis of carbon metabolism in urban agglomerations is crucial for achieving low-carbon development. However, existing researches mainly focus on single-scale and historical period analysis, lacking of multi-scale and multi-scenario predictions of carbon metabolism based on land use. Therefore, this research focuses on Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration (CCUA) and uses carbon metabolism accounting, ecological network analysis, and Markov-PLUS to construct a multi-scale and multi-scenario analysis framework to analyze carbon metabolism characteristics of CCUA. The findings suggest that: (1) Positive carbon flow of CCUA from 2000 to 2020 is smaller than negative carbon flow, and net carbon flow remains consistently negative (−13.57 ∼ −60.02 Tg). Ecological relationship of carbon metabolism of CCUA is mainly determined with control and exploitation relationships, and the proportion remains stable at about 50 %. Ecological mutual index (EMI) of CCUA showed significant growth, steadily increasing from 0.78 to 1.28. (2) Carbon metabolism has obvious spatial scale effects. EMI at different scales shows different spatial differentiation and diffusion characteristics. In addition, standard deviation ellipse of EMI contracted from large to small at all scales, and gravity center (GC) shows a trend of migrating to western region. (3) From EMI ranking results, low-carbon development scenario (0.730) > natural development scenario (0.684) > high-carbon development scenario (0.600). GC of EMI among different scenarios is relatively close, located in Ziyang and Chongqing. The research findings can offer a scientific foundation for low-carbon development and optimal allocation of land resources in CCUA, and provide a reference for other urban agglomerations.
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