Critical Dialogues of Urban Governance, Development and Activism: London and Toronto
Edited by Susannah Bunce, Nicola Livingstone, Loren March, Susan Moore, and Alan Walks
1 December 2020
Cities have been sites of some of the most visible manifestations of the evolution of processes of globilzation 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 develipment, urban politics and community acitvisim, in two key global citiesL 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.
The publication features contributions from a number of members of staff and past students from the Bartlett School of Planning:
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 Livingstone, Loren March and Susan Moore