Changing Planning Cultures with the example of Shrinking Cities in Germany, the USA, and Japan

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Differing institutional and cultural conditions have brought about spatial planning systems that show basic comparable features; however, these planning systems are tailored to specific cultural, normative, and spatial situations. Despite the growing demand for an international viewpoint in urban and regional planning, planning cultures is not (yet) an established research topic in the sphere of urban and regional development. Shrinking cities has been a stigmatized topic in planning for a long time. The range of strategies being applied in shrinking cities today is broad and it comprises substitute industries such as tourism, targeted demolitions (right-sizing), and green infrastructure, just to mention a few. Applying the right strategies seems to be fundamental for the future-oriented development of shrinking cities, leading to the observation that shrinking cities does not work under the same conditions of growth, but would require a shift in paradigm somewhat different from growth. Basic hypothesis of this research project is that the phenomenon of shrinking cities offers the possibility to investigate the principles planning is based upon in a comparative mode, and by this means changes in planning cultures can be detected. The chance offered by shrinking cities lies in the potential to trigger changes, reforms, even innovations in planning cultures, which is the research object for this project. Aims of this research project is the comparative investigation of changes in planning systems and planning cultures in view of shrinking cities in Germany, the USA, and Japan, in particular 1. to analyze planning strategies and -instruments connected with urban shrinkage and its causes in a comparative mode, 2. to detect interdependencies between changes in planning cultures and societal changes in the wake of shrinkage processes, 3. to derive hypotheses for both the future oriented development of shrinking cities, and the development of planning cultures based on the comparison of planning cultural settings. Based on methods of comparative planning and an analytical framework to be developed within the project, three case study cities will be investigated in an embedded case study. Bochum/ Germany, Cleveland/ USA and Nagasaki/ Japan will be chosen as case study cities, as all three show comparable conditions in terms of paths of shrinkage, population development, and economic structures.