Global challenges and local responses: creating a new urban world in the shrinking cities of the US industrial midwest

The phenomenon of cities facing dramatic population loss, the so-called 'shrinking city', offers new challenges for urban scholars. After decades of focusing on growth, geographers, planners, politicians, and others are now confronted with cities and regions that are not just losing people, but often also facing economic and social transformation. As an area of study, we are in the beginning stages of theorizing new urban futures for these cities, as well as developing local planning responses to them.