ABSTRACT
Decision-makers in shrinking cities face a choice between taking action or not acting in response to persistent population loss. Hospers expands this set of choices into a four-way typology of policy responses to urban shrinkage. The four types of policy responses includes: trivializing urban shrinkage, countering urban shrinkage, accepting urban shrinkage and utilizing urban shrinkage. The chapter outlines several inter-related concepts that are consistent with accepting and/or utilizing shrinkage. It provides a general introduction to several of the most popular and influential rightsizing policy instruments from the shrinking cities planning literature. Following Oswalt, the policies are grouped into four broad classes of strategies: disassembling, re-evaluating, re-organizing and imagining. The chapter focuses on place-based palliative planning interventions, building social capital, alternative ownership models, and polycentric governance. It addresses alternatives to the existing pro-growth approaches in American urban and regional policy discourses with the help of real-world examples of right-sizing policy instruments.
