Shrinking cities: Notes for the further research agenda

•Paper reports on an international debate on urban shrinkage that has brought together several national strands of research.•Urban shrinkage is understood as specific trajectory of cities, population loss as its main indicator.•Sections: bridging national debates, aligning local concerns, comparing governance responses and understanding of shrinkage.•Aims at augmenting and sharpening the international research agenda on urban shrinkage.•Link research agenda on shrinkage with other debates in urban studies, e.g. urban inequalities or resource efficiency. Recently, an international debate on urban shrinkage has brought together national strands of research on those cities that have experienced considerable population loss over a prolonged period. Partially as the result of language constraints and varied terminology used, these national debates have occurred rather separately and the huge potential for eliciting cross-national knowledge has just begun to be exploited. The paper aims to augment and sharpen the international research agenda on urban shrinkage. We call for a more elaborate bridging of national discussions, enhancing scholarly understanding of urban shrinkage, and reflecting upon governance and policy. Last but not least, this paper seeks to align the research on urban shrinkage with general challenges and strands of research in urban and regional studies, human geography, and spatial planning. For the chosen topics, we highlight both recent accomplishments and open questions.