A comparative assessment of economic and physical inequality between shrinking and growing cities: a case study of Khuzestan province, Iran

ABSTRACT

Despite the accelerated urbanization that has occurred over recent years, urban shrinkage has emerged silently as a step of urbanization in developing countries. However, without identifying the main causes of this shrinkage, managing it seems impossible. This study aims to make a comparative assessment of economic and environmental inequality between the shrinking cities and growing cities in the province of Khuzestan, Iran, using the statistical Mann-Whitney test. The results of the study showed no significant difference between the shrinking and the growing cities in terms of economic and physical-environmental conditions. In this regard, it is suggested that the current shrinking cities in the province have experienced a process much different from the shrinkage of a vast majority of cities in other countries, particularly in developed countries. This difference can be due to the rentier nature of the Iranian government, the impacts of certain external factors, and the tax-free speculative transactions in the housing sector.

KEYWORDS:

• Economic inequality
• physical and environmental inequality
• shrinking cities
• rentier state
• Khuzestan province
• Iran

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Amir Reza Khavarian-Garmsir http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8609-1748