Le rôle du facteur démographique dans les processus de décroissance urbaine

• Main Author: Yoan Miot
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 2016-03-01
• Series: Espace populations sociétés
• Subjects: urban shrinkage; demographic decline; traditional industrial agglomerations
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/eps/6192

This article draws upon the theoretical framework of urban shrinkage [Fol and Cunningham-Sabot, 2010]. Urban shrinkage is defined as a sustained breakdown in the economic, social and demographic organization of agglomerations in which repulsion phenomena predominate. In France, urban shrinkage is a silent process [Cunningham-Sabot and Fol, 2009]. Indeed, the intensity of demographic decline in French urban areas is limited, due to a dynamic natural balance.This article proposes to examine the role of the demographic decline in the process of urban shrinkage, especially in areas with spatially limited or low intensity demographic decline. In these areas, can we still refer to urban shrinkage ? Then, what are its characteristics ? What are the roles of the demographic dimension in urban shrinkage ? The article discusses three cases of traditional French industrial cities [Plan Urbain, 1994], because these agglomerations have been affected by the European demographic decline since the 1960’s [Turok and Mykhnenko, 2008].