The Elasticity of Shrinking Cities: An Analysis of Indicators

As shrinking cities scholarship has matured over the past two decades, the term shrinking cities has evolved into an overarching concept encompassing a broad range of geographic, cultural, and disciplinary diversity. As the breadth of the shrinking cities discourse has grown, the field has been simultaneously critiqued for being overly inclusive and oversimplifying the dynamic nature of shrinking cities and for a lack of cohesion among fragmented methodological and conceptual approaches. Rather than attempt to advance a universal definition or splinter into geographic or discipline-specific silos, there is an opportunity to expand the range of accepted definitions and measurements to reflect the diversity of contexts and subfields within the shrinking cities discourse. Examining six shrinking city indicators in the U.S. context, this article (1) determines the prevalence, severity, persistence, and geographical incidence of the shrinking cities captured by each of the indicators; (2) demonstrates the hierarchical nature of the shrinking city indicators; and (3) analyzes the characteristics of the shrinking cities captured by each indicator by comparing key economic, socioeconomic, and demographic variables. The analysis of the indicators demonstrates the elasticity of shrinking cities and provides methodological guidance for future shrinking cities research.