Natural population growth and urban management in metropolitan regions

Insights from pre-crisis and post-crisis Athens, Greece

Bibliographic Data

ID10858975
AuthorsSabato Vinci (0000-0002-3028-7423, Third University of Rome, Italy), Gianluca Egidi (Università degli Studi della Tuscia), Rosanna Salvia (0000-0002-6661-7164, University of Basilicata), Antonio Gimenez Morera (Universitat Politècnica de València), Luca Salvati (0000-0001-9322-9987, University of Macerata, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume59
Issue12
Pages2527-2544
Publication date2022-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueUrban Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0042-0980 • E-ISSN: 1360-063X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00420980211035041
OpenAlexW3194084859
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited63

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, cities in Southern Europe experienced a progressive delocalisation of population, settlements and activities over larger regions. Economic downturns have increasingly influenced more recent waves of metropolitan growth, shaping differentiated patterns of urban change. While some cities evolved towards accelerated population dynamics in central districts responding to re-urbanisation impulses, other agglomerations were intrinsically bounded in a sort of ‘late suburbanisation’, with demographic shrinkage of both inner districts and rural areas, and uneven expansion of suburban population. By providing a comprehensive interpretation of the socioeconomic mechanisms underlying recent urban expansion, this study illustrates a diachronic analysis of population dynamics over multiple spatial scales and time frames in a metropolitan region of Southern Europe (Athens, Greece) between 1999 and 2019. Natural population balance was investigated vis à vis selected territorial indicators using descriptive, inferential and multivariate statistics. Results of the analysis identify different social forces underlying suburban population growth during economic expansion (2000s) and recession (2010s), evidencing a distinctive response of local communities to economic downturns that depends mostly on the background context (affluent versus disadvantaged neighbourhoods). Given the multiplicity of territorial dimensions involved in urban growth, our findings highlight how economic downturns distinctively shape metropolitan development based on locally differentiated demographic dynamics

Context (archaeology · Development economics · Economic geography · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Metropolitan area · Population · Population growth · Recession · Sociology · Urban agglomeration · Urban planning · Urban sprawl · Urbanization · Demography · Ecology · Land Use and Ecosystem Services · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies · Urbanization and City Planning

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Open DOIOpen Access