PROF. DR.

GUIDO SPARS

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Back to the City
An international
Perspective



Prof. Dr. Guido Spars

Utrecht, May 14th 2014
Woningbouw Dag 2014:
PROF. DR. GUIDO SPARS

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Agenda:

Urban Age: two perspectives
3 types of Re-Urbanization
European examples
Economic drivers
Quality aspects
Outlook

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Urban Age:

Two international perspectives

1. Urbanization in the south of the world,
Migration and Megacities
2. Re-Urbanization in cities of the European
and Atlantic regions


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1. World population: intense increase in cities
1975: 179 Megacities , 2005: over 400 Megacities!
In 2005 about 21 metropolitan areas with more than 10 Mio. people
(in 1975 only 3)
Most of them in
Africa & Asia


Population in Cities
Population in rural
areas

UN Population
Division, DBR 2008
Population in billions
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2. Re-Urbanization in European cities:
3 Types of Re-Urbanisation
Based on: Herfert,
Osterhage 2012
+
-
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2. Re-Urbanization in 24 Swiss cities:
Population growth rate in 24 city regions in Switzerland, 19802008





Type 1
Rerat 2010
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2. Re-Urbanization in 18 German cities:
Population growth in German cities from 1998 to 2009










5 cities in the north-west 7 cities in the east 6 cities in the south
Inner city, core
Edge of inner city
Suburbs
total
BBSR 2011
Type 1
Type1
Type 2 +3
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2. Re-Urbanization in European cities:

empirical survey of 15 German cities:
development like a cascade:
immigrants (also from other cities in Germany)
moved to the inner cities (gateway-function)
immigrants are young people from 18-30 years
this group has risen about 48% in the inner cities
from 2002-2008 (rejuvenation)
long-time residents moved to the outer districts
the outer districts lost population to the suburbs
Jessen et al. 2012,
BBSR: IRB-Cities 2012
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Haase et al. 2010
2. Re-Urbanization in Leipzig, Bologna, Len, Ljubljana:
Drivers of Re-Urba-
nization as a share
of total population
in case study areas

(households who
moved into the case
study areas within
the last 5 years)
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Economic drivers of the Re-Urbanization
economic structural change: rising of the knowledge-
intensive economy
importance of tacit knowledge (face-to-face)
erosion of normal working and living conditions
more and more globalised and flexibilized society
but: need of homebase, need of relocalization of
people and functions (glocalisation!)
need of complex spaces of options and spill over effects
(social infrastructures, services, communication,
information)
Cities become more important
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Qualitative aspects of Re-Urbanization
Re-Urbanization means also a qualitative change
proximity of working and living
urban milieu: atmosphere, inspiration, non-routine
production and consumption
big city development projects (housing, event culture,
retail, public spaces, gastronomy)
development of inner city mixed-use quarter
quality of public space, multifarious culture + leisure
time facilities, short ways, public transport etc.

Soft factors become more important
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Target groups of Re-Urbanization: Reurbanites

young urban professionals, creative class
education oriented people
best ager / silver ager (active livestyle with options and
short ways)
city oriented families
immigrants from all demographic groups

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Stability of the Re-Urbanization trend?

the economic processes behind the Re-Urbanization are
ongoing
also immigration will be a ongoing phenomenon
certainly the trend of Suburbanisation is still going on
it will not be possible to satisfy all people who want to
live in the city!
Scarcity of land and space
High prices, gentrification
good planning /governance: managing the parallel
and complementary process of urban sprawl and
Re-Urbanization
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Vielen Dank fr Ihre
Aufmerksamkeit!



spars@uni-wuppertal.de

Thank you for your attention!

spars@uni-wuppertal.de