Architect and urban researcher Johannes Fiedler discusses Exterritories, his contribution to the Shrinking Cities Exhibition. Exterritorial communities are the logical continuation of a process that began in the late 20th century—people from expanding countries and cultures filling the voids in receding societies. Fiedler's proposal to create "exterritories" within contracting regions, administered by more economically dynamic nations (e.g., a Chinese economic zone in Halle/Leipzig) exposes such schemes to necessary critiques: who benefits from such arrangements? What is growth, and why assume it is always desirable? How could we conceive a social economy, more democratic and humane than the current entrepreneurial model? And, ultimately, what local efforts can make headway against forces operating on global scales?