Chenggu Li

For many years cities were identified as the places within Europe typically facing the greatest economic and social problems. Large-scale deindustrialisation and deconcentration of jobs and population put strains on urban communities and public authorities. The research and policy discourse was dominated by the idea of urban crisis and decline (for example, Van den Berg et al., 1982, Begg et al., 1986, Cheshire and Hay, 1989).