Participants:

Downloads:

Contact us:

About MSC Regeneration

Medium-sized cities – cities with 50,000 - 300,000 inhabitants – are particularly exposed to the detrimental effects of developmental disparities, usually beyond their influence. At the same time, MSCs only have limited means to address these challenges effectively. As a result of their everincreasing functional interdependency with nearby larger metropolitan areas or regions, they are confronted with the loss of urban functions and the erosion of their economic basis. Sustaining their self-determination and their capacity for urban regeneration, therefore, presents a key issue for urban policies in MSCs.

Particular attention in this respect lies on the qualitative and quantitative change in the population structure – referred to as demographic change, which is amplified by the pull factors of the metropolitan cores and regional centres. Consequently, the strategic focus of MSC urban policies in North- West Europe has been shifting from managing economic and urban growth to addressing and managing demographic change. By addressing specific demographic effects, cities strategically orientate their urban policies towards key target groups that are relevant for the improvement of their economic basis, their environment and their service infrastructure - all being important parameters for cities’ attractiveness.

From this joint departing point, one regional development company and six cities in five countries in North-West Europe have developed the project ‘MSC Regeneration: Urban and Demographic Change in Medium-Sized Cities‘. The MSC Regeneration partnership presents an exemplary view of the demographic challenges facing MSCs. As demographic issues will grow in importance for the social and economic development of the EU as a whole, the project presents a laboratory to develop forward-looking transnational approaches to reconcile demographic effects with urban change. The MSC Regeneration Project partners include partners from MSCs that are part of metropolitan areas as well as partners within reach of larger regional centres or gateway cities.

This MSC Sourcebook 1 is the result of the first project phase, dedicated to develop a joint problem awareness and to evaluate common agendas. In three capacity building sessions, all project partners were involved in training each other on how to address demographic issues. Each of the capacity building sessions was dedicated to one of the three project themes, framing the activities of the MSC Regeneration project:

In total, 13 strategic approaches and good practice experiences have been presented. All contributions have been documented and made accessible to the partnership in a standard format. They highlight methodological as well as decision making aspects related to the different approaches and practice examples. From this extensive material, key aspects have been extracted. This Sourcebook 1 attempts to raise the awareness of the reader to aspects, that are potentially transferable and suitable to address issues of urban and demographic change in other MSCs, too.

In order to facilitate an understanding of the specific change contexts, this sourcebook includes short portraits of the cities represented by the partnership as well as a spotlight on the demographic effects, which these cities are exposed to.

Further, contact details of persons in charge have been included for each project example. The reader should not hesitate to contact them for further information.

The MSC Regeneration partnership is convinced, that this collection of highly innovative project examples will raise awareness towards key target groups that are particularly relevant for addressing MSC demographic effects. The partnership expects that it will stimulate imitation and inspire the improvement of MSC urban policies throughout the EU.

Ernest Drijkoningen
Lead Partner MSC Regeneration