E07 - Urban Policy and Governance
Date: Jun 2 | Time: 03:15pm to 04:45pm | Location:
Canadian Political Science and the City Revisited: Zack Taylor (University of Western Ontario), Shanaya Vanhooren (University of Western Ontario), Gabriel Eidelman (University of Toronto)
Abstract: Ten years ago, Taylor and Eidelman built on an earlier overview by Higgins (1979) by publishing a two-part appraisal of Canadian urban politics scholarship in the Canadian Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Urban Affairs. They found that while the literature had broadened and deepened over the previous decade, significant gaps in attention remained and much of the literature was composed of “orphans and islands” of disconnected research programs. They concluded by calling for more sustained, joined-up, and theoretically and methodologically diverse research on the politics of Canadian cities and urbanization. In this paper, we comprehensively examine research production since 2000 to chart the continuing development of the urban politics subfield. We do so through a systematic analysis of journal articles, books, dissertations, SSHRC research grant awards, and CPSA member directories. On this basis, we identify trends, patterns, gaps, and emerging frontiers, and propose several bases for future research agendas.
Municipal Climate Change Adaptation in the Province of Quebec: Eve Bourgeois (University of Toronto)
Abstract: The scientific community agrees that we will see changes in the climate in the near future unless we reduce significantly our greenhouse gas emissions. Already, we have witnessed some extreme weather events that have been linked to climate change, and such events are predicted to occur more frequently from now on. Despite this context, municipal governments, in Canada and elsewhere, have been slow to take actions in order to reduce their vulnerability to future climate change impacts. Among the ten largest cities within the province of Quebec, only half (Montréal, Québec, Laval, Sherbrooke, and Trois-Rivières) have formally adopted a plan to mitigate the effects of climate change while the other half (Longueuil, Saguenay, Gatineau, Lévis, and Terrebonne) has not. This raises the following research question: Why have some cities adopted a climate change adaptation plan and others have not? To answer this question, this paper conducts two paired comparisons within Quebec based on the most similar systems approach: it compares Laval with Longueuil, on the one hand; and compares Sherbrooke with Saguenay, on the other hand. Using Kingdon’s Multiple Stream Framework, this paper argues that the presence of a policy entrepreneur increases the likelihood of local governments to adopt a formal climate change adaptation plan by bringing attention to extreme weather events and by providing solutions to the problem. The paper also stresses the role of the provincial government in providing funding for municipal climate change actions through the program Climat Municipalité.
Gentrification and Housing Rises: The Comparative Political Economy of Ottawa’s Herongate and Vanier Communities: Doug Yearwood (Queen's University)
Abstract: This paper explores the role of the state in producing neoliberal and austerity urbanism (Peck, 2013; Peck et al, 2015; Danewid, 2019) in two of Ottawa’s most vulnerable communities: Vanier and Herongate. In Herongate, Timbercreek Asset Management plans to construct 57 new buildings within a 20-hectare wedge (Porter, 2019). In Vanier, legitimized through the City of Ottawa’s neighborhood revitalization policy and its status as a Business Improvement Area (BIA), 466 business and property owners have banded together to develop a “prosperous business area” with “millions of dollars of commercial and residential investment” pouring into the area (Quartier-Vanier BIA, n.d.). By relating Luxembourg’s (2003) theorizing of expanded reproduction to Smith’s (1982) rent-gap thesis and Harvey’s (2001) spatial fix, I will explore how macro-systemic changes to global capitalism have resulted in local-level changes within Vanier and Herongate. Through an assessment of inter-scalar state re-regulation and decline in social housing production since 1993, this paper unpacks the multi-faceted particularities of neoliberal urbanism and its relation to gentrification. This project makes use of archives from the City of Ottawa’s civic government and community records to understand Vanier and Herongate’s histories. I also interrogate policy recommendations from “transfers agents” (Theodore, 2011) like Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development and the World Bank to understand the impact of these policies at the local level. This paper puts into focus the class interests involved in producing gentrification—noting the material fallout along racialized dimensions—responding to the Canadian Political Science Association’s call for papers attentive to political divides.
Urban Epistemology Under Construction: A Critical Investigation of Knowledge Claims Made in the Sidewalk Labs’ Quayside Development: Wesley Petite (Carleton University)
Abstract: The front-running foundation of smart cities in Canada, Quayside, has been the infused with scandal, complete with leaked documents, highly publicized resignations, ominous statements in city council, and public outcry both online and on the ground. This would seem highly ironic given that the developer, Sidewalk Labs, promises to solve intractable urban issues such as housing affordability and new levels of responsiveness and optimization of the urban built environment. This paper will develop the long-running literature on the rise of the smart city using this advent of this salient case study (Poster, 1990; Wiig and Wyly, 2016; Shaw and Graham, 2017). Concerns of privacy and consent are abound in Age of Surveillance Capitalism (Zubanoff, 2019) and, being a sister company to Google, Sidewalk Labs was quick to raise suspicion in this regard. Continued work is necessary to demonstrate how new capacities for data accumulation can create new centralizations of power in urban development. Making specific use of Haggerty and Ericson’s (2000) surveillant assemblage, this paper will discuss the development of exploitative constructions of knowledge that are symbolized by the Quayside development. A focused discussion on knowledge helps to reveal nuanced approaches to urban planning that reinforce barriers to the democratic envisioning of urban futures. These barriers have been reacted to by members of the Toronto's public, which only further elucidates the gap between the level of inclusion being offered and those being sought by residents here and now.