Community revitalization projects in the era of shrinking cities : new strategy for urban policies in Germany

本研究选择莱茵-鲁尔都市圈（北莱茵-威斯特伐利亚州）的一些社区（Bezirk或Stadtteil）作为案例研究区域，以探索西德微观尺度区域振兴项目的特征。首先，在西德，自2005年以来，采用的振兴项目总数迅速增加，目标区域不仅扩大到老工业区，而且扩大到都市区的贫困内城区和大型住宅区。其次，与东德不同的是，这些项目侧重于软件基础设施升级项目（即不同文化背景的居民融合，鼓励当地经济，社区社交网络），这些项目由地方政府组织。

In this study some communities (Bezirk or Stadtteil) in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area (North Rhine-Westphalia) are chosen as case study areas in order to detect the characteristics for the regional revitalization projects on the micro-scale in West Germany. Firstly, in West Germany the total number of adopted revitalization projects has increased rapidly since 2005, and target areas are widened not only to old industrial districts, but also to the deprived inner city districts and large housing estate in the Metropolitan Area. Secondly, In contrast to the programs adopted in East Germany, these programs focus on the projects for upgrading software infrastructures (i.e. integration of residents with different cultural backgrounds, encouraging local economy, social networking in the community), which are organized by local government.