Mapping Opportunities
Post-Industrial Cities

Post-industrial cities and communities are frequently portrayed as toxic and polluted, economically stagnant, and spatially shrinking. They are often associated with population decline, brain drain, and social fragmentation. Described as dilapidated and unsafe, these cities are depicted as places with bleak landscapes—symbols of decline rather than opportunity. In developed regions, many once-thriving industrial cities and mining towns are now seen as forgotten, marginalised, or even dystopian. As many developing economies now also begin to experience deindustrialisation, this question becomes more urgent.

By bridging diverse experiences and knowledges from both the Global South and Global North and drawing on perspectives from a wide range of cities and neighbourhoods, we will work toward synthesising a multidirectional and collective vision—one that informs the building of healthy, inclusive, and sustainable urban futures from the remnants and realities of cities and communities' industrial pasts.