Sessions > Session E

Session E.

Declining Territories: Laboratories for Innovation?

Co-chairs: Emmanuèle CUNNINGHAM-SABOT, Alix DE LA GAIGNONNIÈRE & Norma SCHEMSCHAT (ENS), Charline SOWA (Ressources / ENSA Clermont-Ferrand)

Urban and territorial degrowth is a multidimensional, multi-level, structural phenomenon (Martinez-Fernandez et al., 2012) that is affecting a wide variety of territories around the world (Fol & Cunningham-Sabot, 2010) and is indicative of a new era of post-growth (Oswalt, 2005). The issue of innovation in these territories tends to be approached from two radically divergent perspectives: the first views them as having been “left behind” (Martin et al., 2021) in the race for innovation, while the second sees them as laboratories for new planning practices. This generally results in these more complex territories being either stigmatised or lionised (Béal & Rousseau, 2018). This session aims to go beyond this polarised approach to examine the issues, specificities and limits of innovation in declining territories. While the issue of innovation in territories is tied up with interactions between learning processes, their institutional frameworks and space (Kirat & Lung, 1999: 27), this session is particularly focused on action (both national and local) in these territories, whether it is the result of public policies (top-down), or led by local communities, such as residents, associations or practitioners (bottom-up).

Contributors will focus their presentations on the way territories learn (learning process of local stakeholders ahead of their actions), or on the way we learn from territories (dissemination of models and best practices). The session also encourages contributions that analyse the role played by international organisations in the dominant narratives regarding innovation. The aim is thus to demonstrate how these efforts contribute (or not, as the case may be) to the process of innovation in matters of local governance, project development and territorial strategies.

Selected Bibliographical References

Akers J., Béal V., Rousseau M., 2020, “Redefining the City and Demolishing the Rest: The Techno-Green Fix in Postcrash Cleveland, Ohio”, Environment and Planning E : Nature and Space, 3(1), p. 207-227.
Béal V., Rousseau M., 2018, “Après la croissance. Déclin urbain et modèles alternatifs”, La vie des idées.
Fol S., Cunningham-Sabot E., 2010, “ ‘Déclin urbain’ et shrinking cities : une évaluation critique des approches de la décroissance urbaine”, Annales de géographie, 674(4), p. 359-383.
Kirat T., Lung Y., 1999, “Innovation and Proximity. Territories as Loci of Collective Learning Processes”, European Urban and Regional Studies, 6(1), p. 27-38.
Martin R., Gardiner B., Pike A., Sunley P., Tyler P., 2021, Levelling up Left Behind Places. The Scale and Nature of the Economic and Policy Challenge, London, Routledge.
Martinez-Fernandez C., Audirac I., Fol S., Cunningham-Sabot E., 2012, “Shrinking Cities: Urban Challenges of Globalization”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 36(2), p. 213-225.
Oswalt P., 2005, Shrinking Cities, Ostfildern-Ruit, Hatje Cantz Verlag.