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Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism

London and Toronto

Edited by Susannah Bunce, Nicola Livingstone, Loren March, Susan Moore, and Alan Walks

ISBN: 9781787356795

Publication: December 01, 2020

What is this?

Cities have been sites of some of the most visible manifestations of the evolution of processes of globalization and population expansion, and global cities are at the cutting edge of such changes. Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism examines changes in governance, property development, urban politics and community activism, in two key global cities: London and Toronto.

The analysis is inherently comparative, but not in the traditional sense – the volume does not seek to deliver a like-for-like comparison. Instead, taking these two cities as empirical cases, the chapters engage in constructive dialogues about the contested and variegated built forms, formal and informal governmental mechanisms and practices, and policy and community-based responses to contemporary urban concerns.

The authors position a critical dialogue on three central issues in contemporary urban studies: governance, real estate and housing, and community activism and engagement. Their less traditional approach to comparative framing seeks to understand London and Toronto from a nuanced perspective, promoting critical reflection on the experiences and evaluative critiques of each urban context, providing insight into each city’s urban trajectory and engaging critically with wider phenomena and influences on the urban governance challenges beyond these two cities.

Susannah Bunce is Associate Professor in the Department of Human Geography and City Studies Program at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Nicola Livingstone is Associate Professor in Real Estate at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL.

Loren March is a PhD student in human geography at the University of Toronto’s Department of Geography and Planning.

Susan Moore is Associate Professor in Urban Development and Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL.

Alan Walks is Professor of Urban Planning and Geography at the University of Toronto.





List of figures
List of tables
List of acronyms
List of contributors
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Critical dialogues of urban governance, development and activism: London and Toronto
Susan Moore, Susannah Bunce, Nicola Livingston, Loren March and Alan Walks

Part I: Perspectives on governance

1. Capital flows in the capital: Contemporary governmental Imaginations in London’s urban development
Mike Raco and Nicola Livingstone

2. The elusive, inclusive city: Toronto at a crossroads
Shauna Brail and Tara Vinodrai

3. Regulating property conditions in the private rented sector: The complex geography of property licencing in London
Tatiana Moreira de Souza

4. Metromobility and transit-led urbanisation in London and Toronto
Theresa Enright

5. The governance of urban public spaces in London: In the public interest or in the interest of local stakeholders?
Claudio De Magalhães

6. London, its infrastructure and the logics of growth
Daniel Durrant

7. Governing urbanisation in the global city: A commentary
Alan Walks and Mike Raco

Part II: Real estate and housing

 8. Governing urban development on industrial land in global cities: Lessons from London
Jessica Ferm

9. Global city, global housing bubble? Toronto’s housing bubble and its discontents
Alan Walks

10. Trends and Issues in the (unaffordable) London housing market  
Tommaso Gabrieli

11. Housing crisis in a Canadian global city: Financialisation, buy-to-let Investors and short term rentals in Toronto’s rental market
Emily Hawes and Sean Grisdale

12. Planning for densification and housing in London: Urban design and real estate agendas in practice
Michael Short and Nicola Livingstone

13. Addressing equity concerns in land value capture: The spatial distribution of community benefits in Toronto’s urban redevelopment
Jeff Biggar and Matti Siematycki

14. Real estate and housing: A commentary. Dynamics of a housing crisis – the politics and planning of housing in London and Toronto
Susannah Bunce and Nicola Livingstone

Part III: Community, activism and engagement

15. DIY: making space in Toronto’s ‘Creative City’
Loren March

16. Pragmatic fix or a farewell to welfare? Making sense of and contesting the financialisation of public land and council housing in London
Joe Penny

17. Community-based responses to exclusionary processes of neighbourhood change in Parkdale, Toronto
Elena Ostanel

18. Time to be an activist: Recent successes in housing activism in London
Pablo Sendra and Daniel Fitzpatrick

19. Engagement and activism in community land ownership: The emergence of community land trusts in London and Toronto
Susannah Bunce

20. Community, activism and engagement: A commentary
Loren March and Susan Moore

Conclusion: Critical dialogues on urban governance, development and activism in London and Toronto
Alan Walks, Susannah Bunce, Nicola Livingston, Loren March and Susan Moore

Index

Format: Open Access PDF

23 colour illustrations

Copyright: © 2020

ISBN: 9781787356795

Publication: December 01, 2020

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