Kulturális gazdaság és társadalmi tőke a zsugorodó kisvárosokban

Abstract

Shrinking is one of the most likely cited new challenges of western cities. Although it is dominantly connected to larger cities with enormous structural problems in economy and long"term demographical decline, small towns in many countries are also affected by this problem. According to the new data of the 2011 census in Hungary, 214 out of 259 small towns with less than 30,000 inhabitants can be considered as shrinking settlements. Shrinking small towns show no specific geographical distribution and the intensity of population loss is not directly linked to their size, and the strong outmigration also suggest, that it might be a structural problem of this settlement type. With losing some of their former central functions, social capital carried by the local networks of citizens could be more valuable than ever before. The effects of the globalisation dissolve some of the traditional networks and erode the close interpersonal and informal connections of local society. The cultural economy, which stays in the focus of many of the city regeneration projects, might not be able to act as a dominant sector of small town renewal, but it could be a powerful tool to keep and rebuild some aspects of the social capital of small towns preventing them from further losses of migration.