1172 | 687 | Crisis of urbanization or crisis of interpretation? Recent examples from southern European urban systems. | Petros Petsimeris
Crisis of urbanization or crisis of interpretation? Recent examples from southern European urban systems._x000D_
_x000D_
Petros Petsimeris_x000D_
Université Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne, _x000D_
Géographie-cité UMR 8504 CNRS_x000D_
_x000D_
In the history of urban studies there has been a range of contrasting evaluations and representations of the dynamics of urban systems. Differences have occurred in terms of the delimitation of urban areas, the interpretation of socio-demographic trends, and the evolution of urbanization, which has variously been viewed as the increase in population, proliferation of the number of cities and/or development of the built-up area. At times of crisis (financial, political, economic, industrial, health, climate) there is a tendency to estimate – mainly overestimate – inverted tendencies, and to crystal ball-gaze future scenarios of rural renaissance, counter-urbanization and urban abandonment so as to falsify previous theories, models and paradigms. The aim of this paper is to analyse the dynamics of urban systems in southern Europe – focusing on Italy, Spain and Greece – during the period 1951-2021 according to the theories of urbanization, counterurbanization and city life cycle. Special emphasis is given to the last two decades and to the socio-demographic components of urban dynamics affected by the financial (2007-8) and pandemic (2020-1) crises. A comparison is made between these recent crises and the impact of previous crises (Fordism in the 1970s and 1980s) on the urbanization processes. The scale of analysis is the municipality and neighbourhood levels, chosen in order to see which areas are mainly affected by the processes of decline or re-urbanization. Particular attention is given to the socio-demographic dynamics of the main metropolitan areas. The last part of the paper discusses the results in terms of the debate on deurbanization, shrinkage and re-urbanization, and forwards a number of tentative interpretative hypotheses._x000D_
_x000D_
Petros Petsimeris
Université Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne, Géographie-cité UMR 8504 CNRS
ID Abstract: 687