Path creation in the governance of shrinking cities and regions: regional collaboration and circular economy in Parkstad Limburg

This paper examines how new development pathways emerge through changes in governance under conditions of structural shrinkage, using the case of Parkstad Limburg, a shrinking urban region in the Netherlands. Drawing on Evolutionary Governance Theory and a path-mapping methodology, it analyses how rigidity, flexibility, and contingency interact in the co-evolution of actors, institutions, and discourses shaping the region’s governance path. The findings show that inherited legacies of parochialism and social inertia, rooted in the coal-mining past, long constrained regional collaboration and reinforced fragmented, growth-oriented responses to decline. Path creation became possible when the growing recognition of urban shrinkage as a structural problem enabled collective learning, strengthened regional leadership, and supported the gradual reworking of institutional arrangements towards coordinated regional action. In turn, an unanticipated conflict over demolition opened space for experimentation through a local project, which was strategically reframed as part of a circular construction agenda and subsequently institutionalised as a broader regional path to reinvention. The paper concludes that deliberate path creation hinges on iterative interplay between learning, leadership, and bricolage within evolving governance configurations.