Abandonment as an “Urban” Problem? Critical Implications and Challenges for Urban Studies

The problem of abandoned buildings in urban contexts is gaining attention in public debates and academic literature. It is agreed that urban abandonment is undesirable for functional, economic, environmental, and social reasons, but the difference between factual questions (material aspects) and abstract ones (normative aspects) is not always clearly distinguished. This study challenges this position while clarifying specific points of view for discussing why abandoned buildings are problematic for urban contexts. The central hypothesis is that the relevant emerging policy motivations focus on the efficiency of urban settings; based on a review suggest, the pursuit of efficiency can differ depending on conjectures about urban processes or the scale of reference for empirical problems. The results of this review unfold a critical discussion of the conflicting ideas about information, nature and government of urban contexts.