We understand urban regeneration as all efforts managed, funded or at least guided to some extent by public authorities that aim at improving, stabilizing or revitalizing existing neighborhoods. This comprises area-based strategies, improvements of public infrastructure and interventions into the physical structure of the built environment. Their strategies may be redevelopment, renewal, careful regeneration, socially integrative management and others. Those efforts aim at dealing with reurbanization trends recently challenged by new suburbanization due to overheated development, sharp increases in house prices and more and more professionals working from home. The major objective of the book is to give an overview of the variety of approaches applied in European countries. Therefore, it takes a particular look at the “systems” of urban regeneration that build upon an interplay of specific legal frameworks, policies, public funding schemes, physical planning tools, partnerships and governance arrangements applied with the intention of solving “urban problems”. For this purpose, chapters present case studies of those national or regional systems or outstanding examples of long-term efforts by major cities. 

The Editors

Dr. Uwe Altrock is Professor for Urban Regeneration and Planning Theory at the University of Kassel, Germany. 

Dr. Detlef Kurth is professor for Urban Planning at TU Kaiserslautern in the Department of Spatial and Environmental Planning.