THE ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS OF LITHUANIAN-POLISH BORDER REGION’S CITIES: THE SPECIFIC OF URBAN SHRINKAGE

The topic of “urban shrinkage” is receiving increasing attention in the political urban agendas of many countries. In the global market, cities, which suffer from consequences of urban decline, confront with new challenges in finding and applying creative solutions to strengthen their economic development and competitiveness. Shrinkage processes are especially widespread in the cities which are smaller and less attractive to live and work. The same tendencies are seen at national border regions. The article explains the general causes and consequences of urban shrinkage process emphasizing problems that have a direct impact on the improvement of urban economic competitiveness. The urban economic competitiveness evaluation methodology under the context of shrinkage is developed and its practical applicability is verified on the example of border cities. Various strategies of solving problems of shrinkage are overlooked. Recommendations to improve the economic development and competitiveness of Lithuanian-Polish cross border cities Alytus and Ełk in the context of urban shrinkage are introduced