A critical evaluation of the city life cycle idea

The idea that cities or their neighborhoods, like organisms, experience a life cycle was very popular in policy-oriented U.S. urban studies literature of the 1970s. This paper presents a critical evaluation of the city life cycle idea. A brief survey of the city life cycle idea in recent literature is followed by a "double-barrelled" critical evaluation. First, the idea is examined and evaluated in terms of its use in, and implications for, the practice of social science. Second, the idea is evaluated as it influenced public policy and served to reinforce the interests of particular groups. Two conclusions are presented (1) that the largely uncritical use of the city life cycle idea allowed the idea to slip from being an image to being a cause in accounts of urban decline and (2) that the city life cycle idea, albeit flawed, was accepted and persisted because it servedparticular interests. The adoption of the city life cycle idea has had consequences both for the social sciences based upon it and for the cities and their inhabitants which became the targets of policies influenced by the idea.