Shrinking Cities, Smaller Cities:
 Modern Crisis or New Path to Prosperity?
Can Smaller be Better?

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 30

9 a.m.
Welcome
David Freedberg, Director, Italian Academy,
 Pierre Matisse Professor of Art History, Columbia University

Opening Remarks
Michael Ryan
Director, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University

9:15-11:15 a.m.
Session I:  “An Historical View of Urban Shrinkage: the Industrial City's Last Gasp?"

Chair: Lisa Keller, Purchase College, SUNY

Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University: “From Venice to Detroit: Urban Decline Across the Centuries”

Robert A. Beauregard, Columbia University: “The Inconstant Tenacity of Shrinkage: U.S. Cities, 1790 to Present”

Discussion

11:30-12:15 p.m.
Session II:  Documenting the City through Film

Introduction: Themis Chronopoulos, SUNY Stony Brook

Emmanuèle Cunningham-Sabot, University of Rennes, France.
“Glasgow’s Turnaround”

12:30-1:45 p.m.
Keynote Address
Luncheon

Introduction:  Barbara Faedda, Associate Director,
Italian Academy for Advanced Studies

Guido Martinotti
 University of Milano-Bicocca, & SUM (Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane), Florence Italy
"Surfing the tsunami.  Decline or development in the European meta-city?"

2-3:30 p.m.
Session III: A Transatlantic View: Three Post-Industrial Cases

Chair: Owen Gutfreund, Hunter College

    Lars Nilsson, Institute of Urban History, Stockholm University, Sweden: "Cities in decline: Trends and countertrends in Swedish post-industrial urban development".

Maria Prieto, Independent Researcher, Spain: “Scales of the City: The Case of Spain”

Elliot Sclar, Columbia University, “Living in the Time of Planned Shrinkage: Perceptions of New York 1960 to 2007”

Discussion

3:45-5:15 p.m.
Session IV: Mining Towns in the Americas

Chair:  Jaime Rodriguez, St. John’s University

José Vargas-Hernández, Universitario de Ciencias Económico Administrativas Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico: “Shrinking of Corporate Towns: A Mexican Case Study”

Jeffrey Manuel, Southern Illinois University (Edwardsville): “Changing Everything To Keep It the Same: Evaluating the Fight Against Decline in the Lake Superior Iron Mining Cities”

Discussion

FRIDAY OCTOBER 1

9-11 a.m.
Session V: “Rise, Fall, Rise? Post-Industrial Landscapes in the US"

Chair: David Smiley, Barnard College, Columbia University

Frank J. Popper, Rutgers University & Princeton University, and Deborah E. Popper, College of Staten Island and Graduate Center of the City University of New York:  “What the World’s Rust Belts Can Learn from North America’s Great Plains”

Tracy Campbell, University of Kentucky: "The Rise and Fall of the 'New York of the West': The Case of St. Louis, Missouri"

Allen Dietrich-Ward, Shippensburg University: "From Mill Towns to ‘Burbs of the 'Burgh: Suburban Strategies in Post-Industrial Pittsburgh."

Discussion

11:15-12:45
Session VI: “The View from Italy: Milan and Genoa”

Moderator: Maurizio Vaudagna, University of Eastern Piedmont

Alessandro Balducci, Politecnico di Milano:  “Milan: A Shrinking City in a Dynamic Urban Region"

Alberto Violante, University La Sapienza  - Rome: "Can Regeneration Defeat Shrinkage? Genoa, An Italian Example"

Discussion

12:45-2:15
Session VII: The Empire State: The Problems and the Prospects
Luncheon

Introduction: Kenneth T. Jackson, Herbert H. Lehman Center for American History, Columbia University

Kathryn Foster, Director, University at Buffalo Regional Institute, SUNY:   “Wedding of the Waters' Revisited:  Reconnecting New York State in an Era of Shrinkage"

Michael Skrebutenas, Deputy Commissioner, Division of Housing and Community Development New York State, & Aaron Bartley, PUSH:   “Community Development in an Era of Austerity:  New York State’s Sustainable Neighborhood Initiative”

Discussion

2:30-4:30  p.m.
Session VIII:  Adapting to Shrinkage in Germany and the United States

Chair: Deborah Becher, Barnard College, Columbia University

Matthias Bernt, University of Berlin/Leipzig:  "Stadtumbau Ost: State-Led Responses to Shrinkage in Germany"

Terry Schwarz, Kent State University: "Shrink to Fit: Vacant Land Reclamation in Cleveland"

Margaret Dewar, University of Michigan: “Remaking the City after Abandonment: Lessons from Detroit."

Discussion

4:45-5:45 p.m.

Roundtable Wrap-up: All Participants

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Inquiries to the Lehman Center:
lehmancenter@columbia.edu
212-854-3060

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