Paper short abstract:

The paper focuses on rural-urban relations and absences in adapting with shrinkage as part of coexistences. Absences, uncertainty and related landscapes can be considered as creative tensions that generate particular presences at edges of urbanisation. Processes from Estonia´s town of Narva.

Paper long abstract:

Decrease of inhabitants, uncertainty and reconfiguring unused infrastructure are part of transformations in many large and small cities. The adaptation with various dynamics of shrinkage can take multiple forms and affective entanglements binding cities with non-urban entities. The paper focuses on expressed rural-urban relations and absences in adapting with shrinkage across different scales of coexistences. Absences and related landscapes can be considered as creative tensions that coproduce particular presences at edges of urbanisation (Vanolo 2019, Gandy 2022). These absent presences can draw together (and split apart) rural and urban along diverse qualities in context of transforming spatiality and temporality. Dynamics of shrinkage can become entangled with diverse dimension of uncertainty and crisis. The remaking of boundaries takes place through evolving associations rather than tangible lines of separation. These issues will be studied in the Estonia´s town Narva, which is situated next to the border between EU and Russia. I will focus on the role of urban fringes in Narva´s transformation. The research material combines artistic-architectural representations, stories of inhabitants and politics of spatial planning.