Persistency of the shrinkage challenge in eastern Germany, legacy effects and limited policy impact

Abstract

Severe demographic decline is not only observed at the European margins, but also in rural contexts in Central Europe. The reunification of Germany in 1989 was hailed as a political change enhancing expectations for a swift catching-up process of eastern Germany, including rural regions with the strongest shrinkage experiences. However, economic and social transformation challenges even aggravated demographic losses leading to an ageing society with limited territorial attractiveness. Socio-economic analyses thus underpin the legacy effect of political systems, and the inherent difficulty for overcoming institutional lock-in. These challenges are experienced at local, regional and national levels and pertain, despite a long commitment to tackle shrinking problems at different scales, with the consequence that local and regional actors feel hardly understood or even neglected in their practical efforts for raising spatial identity, agency and justice. Based on a regional case in eastern Germany the paper explores the persistent features of these observed obstacles and the limited effects of “inside” support from national and subnational scales to bolster a revitalization of these regions.