Abstract:  The article examines the paradox of urban governance in Poland’s five largest cities (excluding Warsaw)—Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, and Gdańsk—where municipal authorities articulate policies aimed at population retention and growth while simultaneously experiencing persistent suburbanization and demographic decline. Drawing on 13 semi‐structured interviews with high‐ranking city officials, transcribed and coded according to a semi‐standardized protocol, the article analyzes how local authorities in these cities approach the challenge and aspiration of population retention and reurbanization within increasingly challenging demographic contexts. The findings reveal a significant implementation gap between aspirational policy goals and actual governance capacities. City authorities recognize population retention as vital for maintaining tax revenues and urban vitality, yet their policy toolkit remains severely limited by several interrelated factors (insufficient regulatory authority within the fragmented planning system; contentious relationships with suburban municipalities; weak leverage over real estate developers, and ambiguous national policies incentivizing suburbanization). The study contributes to debates on shrinking cities by highlighting how governance limitations transform reurbanization from a potentially transformative policy framework into merely aspirational rhetoric. This governance gap illuminates why potential “spaces of possibility” remain unrealized despite awareness of demographic challenges and knowledge of possible interventions. By analyzing the interplay between institutional constraints, market forces, and municipal responses, this research advances understanding of the specific governance challenges facing post‐socialist cities and their metropolitan areas attempting to navigate demographic decline in contexts of planning deregulation and weak metropolitan governance.

Keywords:  demographic decline; post‐socialist cities; reurbanization; suburbanization; urban governance

Published:   19 January 2026

Issue:   Vol 11 (2026): Left-behind Places or Spaces of Possibilities? Shrinking Cities as Foregrounds for Urban Transitions (In Progress)