Canadian cities on the edge: Reassessing the Canadian suburb

Half a century of explosive suburban expansion has fundamentally changed the
\nmetropolitan dynamic in North American city-regions. In many cities the imagined
\nsuburban “bourgeois utopias” that evolved during the 19th Century, in material and
\ndiscursive opposition to the maladies of the city, have given way to diverse forms of
\nsuburban and exurban development. New, complex and contradictory landscapes with
\ndiverse social, infrastructural and political-economic characteristics have appeared
\nwithin pre-existing urbanisms and urban forms. This maelstrom of growth, with its
\nassociated fluid geographical restructuring, is being reflected in qualitatively different
\nrhythms of everyday suburban life and has engendered stresses in the institutional and
\ninfrastructural cohesion of the metropolis – problematizing scalar governmental
\nrelations between city and suburbs, the theoretical and applied use of “urban” solutions
\nto address “suburban” problems, and what constitutes “urbanity” itself.
\nFocusing on the Canadian context from a broad (yet by no means exclusive range of
\nmethodological and theoretical perspectives, it can be argued that, despite their
\nubiquitous presence, suburban society, space and politics have been unduly sidelined in
\nvarious bodies of geographic literature. In response to this deficit, we think it is time to
\ndevelop a research agenda for critically unpacking the complex social, institutional and
\ninfrastructural realities of contemporary suburban landscapes. In particular, we suggest
\nfuture studies of “the suburbs” may benefit by engaging with the following: (1) the
\ncontinuing predominance of an uncritical city-suburb dichotomy; (2) the presence of “inbetween landscapes”, poorly acknowledged in both urban and suburban imaginaries; (3)
\nthe theoretical de-valorization of “forgotten” suburban spaces and lives within the
\ncontemporary metropolis; and (4) the dialectical interplay between (sub)urban society,
\nspace and politics. A re-conceptualisation of “the suburbs” requires a holistic
\nunderstanding of the city’s varied landscapes, everyday realities, and contemporary
\npolitical infrastructures, allowing us to grasp the fluidity and dynamism (and emerging
\ncontradictions) shaping present-day urban experiences in Canadian city-regions.

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