Living in the inner city: New challenges for urban communities. German journal of urban studies

Dublin Core

In recent decades, settlement development in Germany has been determined by suburbanisation, particularly residential suburbanisation. The family was long regarded as the main driving force in this process. The common view was that families moved out into single-family homes in a verdant setting on the edge of town or in more peripheral suburban areas as soon as occupational prospects were settled and offspring was on the way. Despite the fact that far fewer people actually live in their own home in the urban environs that is usually claimed, the consequences of this development were nonetheless serious. They included the establishment of more and more residential areas on the outskirts of the city or in surrounding areas, urban sprawl at the cost of the countryside, and land take for new roads, as well as partial social segregation by income, age, and ethnic origin.

Changing living and housing patterns, i.e., changing conditions at the societal, economic, and regulatory levels, as well as their impact on residential preferences, social structure, urban development, and business have for a considerable time now been signalling a new trend over and above suburbanisation towards rediscovering the city, and particularly the inner city, as a place to live. In parallel, urban planning and development policy are endeavouring to upgrade housing and the residential environment in cities, for instance through rehabilitation and redevelopment, the Socially Integrative City programme, and, most recently, national urban development policy.