Abstract:  While the existence of marginalized or left‐behind places is not a new phenomenon, both marginalization and socio‐economic, spatial, and political polarization have accelerated over the past decades as a central effect of neoliberal globalization, and in the case of eastern Germany, the process of German unification in that context. Economic marginalization, widely seen by those marginalized as driven by national and transnational elites, has led to the growth of anti‐elite or populist perspectives, reinforced by the financial crisis and subsequent austerity of 2007–2009. For many reasons, the Covid‐19 pandemic in 2020, which we see as a societal or cultural trauma, became a catalyst for spreading those perspectives and driving a more overt political expression of them. In this commentary, we trace the conjoined history of economic marginalization, left‐behind places, the effects of the pandemic in the context of the polycrisis, and the growth of anti‐elite populist movements. We further explore how recent developments can enrich the debate on shrinkage and decline, discuss the implications of this history for future possibilities and challenges for democratic rule, public policy, and society, and suggest directions for further investigation.

Keywords:  left‐behindness; marginalization; polycrisis; populism; shrinkage

Published:   8 April 2026

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