Xiang’s talk, “The Intermediary Trap: International Labour Recruitment, Transnational Governance and State-Citizen Relations in China,” will take place Nov. 5 at 519 91��ɫ Research Tower, Keele campus. A reception will begin at 2:30pm, followed by the lecture at 3pm. Everyone is welcome to attend the event hosted by the 91��ɫ Centre of Asian Research (YCAR).

Xiang Biao

“Dr. Xiang is a young and exciting anthropologist working on migration in Asia. His work comprises detailed ethnographic studies in multiple contexts including India, China, Singapore, Korea, Japan and Australia. He epitomizes the 'open' and 'non-territorial' concept of Asia-as-region that we espouse at YCAR,” says Philip F. Kelly, YCAR director.

Xiang’s forthcoming book Making Order from Transnational Mobility (Princeton University Press) is the result of four years of field research across East Asia.

Beyond the appeal of Xiang's pan-Asian ethnographies, his work on the transnational governance regimes that regulate migration will also be of interest to a wide range of scholars at 91��ɫ, says Kelly.

Xiang’s lecture will trace how transnationally-linked commercial labor recruiters gain a dominant position in cultivating, facilitating and controlling migration.  These intermediaries render themselves indispensable both for migrating workers and for the states seeking to make order from migration.

The intermediary trap is more dynamic and complex than a simple “capture” by identifiable interest groups and is deeply implicated in changing state-citizen relations in China. Rooted in Chinese and other Asian states’ agenda to liberalize socioeconomic life without compromising sovereign power, the intermediary trap may become a worldwide phenomenon with the resurgence of state power alongside a continuing neoliberal hegemony beyond Asia.

Through its Asia Lecture Series, YCAR showcases some the best of scholarship on Asia and initiates discussion in both academic and non-academic communities about major issues relating to Asia in a global context.

For more information about YCAR, visit the YCAR website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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The question of reconstructing the conceptual frameworks for research in Asia and Asian Diaspora has been actively debated in the last few decades. These discussions pay critical attention to the modern politics of constructing Asian spaces and identities, and of disseminating knowledge of the area throughout the world.

Taking up this challenge, this conference will explore how our own work can better contribute to this understanding, and point out the misunderstandings of the categories, spaces and frameworks constructed as part of Asian Studies within and beyond the territorial limits of “Asia.”

The conference keynote speaker will be Professor Vinay Gidwani of the Department of Geography and Institute of Global Studies, University of Minnesota.

The organizing committee welcomes graduate research with interdisciplinary approaches. For a complete list of topics, visit the conference website.

Interested participants should submit a paper title, abstract with keywords (250 words maximum), along with brief biographical information (name, affiliation, stage of graduate study) by Dec. 1 to YCARreconstructions2013@gmail.com.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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Several international observers were asked to oversee the January Taiwan presidential election to ensure freedom and fairness in what was predicted to be an extremely close race. Susan Henders, director of the 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), was one of them. She’ll be discussing her experience as part of a panel Tuesday.

“Taiwan’s Super Saturday: Perspectives on the 2012 Polls from Canadian Election Observers” will take place Feb. 14, from 3:30 to 5:30pm, at 857 91��ɫ Research Tower, Keele campus.

Invited by the (ICFET), Henders was one of about 21 scholars, business people, parliamentarians and former government officials from eight countries, including Canada, the United States and several in Europe and Asia. This was the fifth time the Taiwanese people have voted directly for a presidential candidate since 1996. In addition, the legislative elections were also underway.

A street rally in support of the Democratic Progressive Party campaign

“There are always issues of freedom and fairness in Taiwan elections,” says Henders, a political science professor at 91��ɫ. “However, there were particular concerns about this one because the presidential race was predicated to be really close. The ICFET wanted some international observers there who could comment on the spot about what might be going on in the days leading up to the polls and also to provide some judgment about the freedom and fairness of the election.”

Michael Stainton (left) in Taiwan with a poster in the background in support of the Kuomintang, the Chinese Nationalist Party, which was re-elected

Henders found the experience interesting and enlightening, and despite Taiwan’s unique situation and challenges, feels it has something to teach other democracies about the conditions that undermine the strength of democracy and the democratic nature of elections. She will join Michael Stainton, a Taiwan scholar and president of the Taiwan Human Rights Association of Canada who was also a member of the ICFET mission, in discussing their experiences as observers at the Tuesday event.

Stainton and Henders will examine how Taiwan’s democracy is affected by the island’s authoritarian past and its relations with China and the United States. B. Michael Frolic, a 91��ɫ political science professor emeritus, will speak about the election in light of Taiwan-China relations and democratization in other contexts. Lois Wilson, a former Canadian senator and president of the World Council of Churches, who was also part of the election observation mission, will also speak at the event.

A meeting for the Democratic Progressive Party campaign, with the presidential candidate and her running mate on the background poster

In the preliminary report following the election, the ICFET observers noted issues, such as vote buying, were a problem in the Jan. 14 polls. They also noted some misuse of government power and a severe imbalance in party wealth and resources, which undermines the freeness and fairness of elections, but is a result of the island’s authoritarian past. Taiwan was under authoritarian rule until the late 1980s and is still trying to throw off the residue of that period in its bid for democracy.

Susan Henders

Taiwan’s particular geopolitical and economic positioning with respect to China and the United States also means that foreign interference in elections remains an issue, says Henders. 

The international election observation report stated that both Chinese and former United States officials interfered in the political process. During the election process, Taiwan and international media reported that Chinese officials were using China’s economic power to try to sway the election outcome. In addition, a few days before the election, a former American Institute in Taiwan chairman commented that Taiwan relations with China and the US would suffer if the opposition won.

“It was that kind of thing we were able to respond to quickly,” says Henders. Head of the ICFET mission Frank Murkowski, former US Alaska governor and senator, publicly condemned the remarks saying the US government should be neutral in the election.

The Taiwanese people are particularly sensitive to the views of US and Chinese officials. Although the US doesn’t recognize Taiwan as a state, it is obliged to protect it militarily. “So if a former US official says anything before an election in Taiwan, it gets a lot of attention,” says Henders.  As Canada doesn’t formerly recognize Taiwan either, “it is particularly important that Canadian people, by participating in the election observation mission, showed support for efforts by Taiwanese people to strengthen their democracy.”

The Central Election Commission counting centre

Henders says the mission should be seen as a small contribution to the long-term building of a stronger democracy in Taiwan by getting rid of old authoritarian legacies and dealing with the power of China. “We were in many ways impressed by the election. We did not hear of issues with ballot counting or the mechanics of the process while we were there, and the candidates on the whole were forthcoming in answering the questions of our observation mission. Taiwan has achieved a lot.”

The ICFET mission visited Taipei, Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taichung and met with candidates or organizers from the three main political parties – the Democratic Progressive Party, the Chinese Nationalist Party and the People’s First Party. They also attended street rallies and campaign events, and visited polling stations. The mission members were present in the Central Election Commission counting centre on election day, they spoke with the media and held press conferences, as well as a public forum on democracy.

‘These kinds of observer missions represent a way civil society groups can be vigilant in helping each other and strengthening democracy,” Henders says.

For more information, contact YCAR at ycar@yorku.ca or visit the YCAR website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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[1.] 91��ɫ, Canada

91��ɫ’s Department of Film [Faculty of Fine Arts] is Canada’s first, largest and most comprehensive university-based film school. Film programs are taught by 40 award-winning filmmakers and prominent scholars, all active in their field. Students benefit from comprehensive, professional training that blends theory and practice in a free-thinking and creative environment. Five hundred-plus students work in modern learning, production and screening facilities in Toronto, one of the world’s leading film capitals. 91��ɫ offers a mix of graduate and undergraduate programs covering a range of topics. Students explore everything from the role that film and television play in society to genre-specific topics such as the vampire in cinema or crime film.

Asian students with international filmmaking aspirations have a couple of major avenues to choose from. They can give into the Hollywood paradigm and study in LA, where they will be encouraged to conform to the system and join the filmmaking masses. Opposite this, they can seek out smaller, counter-cultural schools that put a priority on the modern film as work of art.

For those intent on pursuing the latter, a school like 91��ɫ is an excellent option. Based in Toronto in Canada, it offers all of the advantages of a North American education without cornering aspiring filmmakers in the Hollywood mindset.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The recipient of the 2011 Vivienne Poy Asian Research Award, de Leon received her master's degree in sociology & equity studies in education, and women & gender studies at the University of Toronto, and her honours bachelor degree in women’s studies and English language & literature from Queen’s University, before coming to 91��ɫ. Her research interests focus on critical race theory, transnational feminist praxis, gender and migration and the development of critical Filipino studies in Canada.

Left: Conely de Leon

Her research explores whether long-term family separation, for example as an outcome of Canada's Live-In Caregiver Program, results in enduring and pervasive adverse effects on the socioeconomic, cultural and political engagement of children of Filipina migrant domestic workers as adults. Specifically, de Leon’s research in Manila will focus on the relationships that adult children now in Canada have to extended kin, often identified as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and close family friends, who acted as their “primary” caregivers in the Philippines, while separated from their mothers.

By exploring these relationship dynamics through one-on-one, in-depth interviews, de Leon hopes to offer some insight into the complexities of long-term family separation.

The award is named for the Honourable Vivienne Poy and assists a graduate student in fulfilling the fieldwork requirement for the Graduate Diploma in Asian Studies. YCAR is grateful for Senator Poy's support for this award.

Colin McGuire (right) and Chad Walasek are the 2011 recipients of the YCAR Language Award. McGuire, a doctoral candidate in music, will continue to study languages and advance his abilities in Cantonese during a year in Hong Kong as an exchange student. Walasek, a master's candidate in dance at 91��ɫ, will use the award funding to build on his Urdu language skills in a fall 2011 course in India.������

McGuire plans to study at the Yale-China Chinese Language Centre for two semesters starting in September 2011. His research is on the music of the martial arts and his doctoral dissertation will focus on the percussion repertoire performed by Chinese-Canadian kung fu clubs. His approach is interdisciplinary and draws from ethnomusicology, hoplology, phenomenology, semiotics and Asian studies.

Of particular importance to the intersection of music and martial arts are the processes of transmission, identity formation, creation of space, claiming of place and construction of meaning. McGuire is currently performing ethnographic fieldwork through participant observation at the Hong Luck Kung Fu Club in Toronto’s Spadina/Dundas Chinatown.

Before entering the PhD program, McGuire earned an MA in composition in 2003 from 91��ɫ, was a course director for 91��ɫ’s computer music classes and received transmission of the complete Sum Nung Wing Chun Kuen system of Chinese kung fu under Lo Kuen-Hung Sifu. His music has been featured on the award-winning TV show "Departures" and also in the Little Pear Garden Collective’s production of The Four Beauties of China. He is the recipient of a 2010 Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Award.

Left: Chad Walasek

Walasek is both a professional kathak dancer and a graduate student. After participation in an exchange program with India and subsequent work in Pakistan as part of a BSc in international development studies at the University of Toronto, he began training in the Hindustani performing arts (dance, percussion and vocal). 

He has studied tabla for the last several years and made his debut with the Toronto Tabla Ensemble in 2007. A senior kathak student of Joanna de Souza and disciple of Pandit Chitresh Das, Walasek tours internationally with Chhandam Dance Company and regularly participates in independent productions. He performed his first formal full-length classical solo in March 2008.

A recipient of an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Walasek's current research focuses on the development of kathak dance in post-Partition Pakistan and the ambivalent relationship between kathak dance and Pakistani identity.

The main phase of his fieldwork was conducted in Lahore, Pakistan, in February and March 2011. A combination of research methods were employed, including participant observation, oral history collection, English and Urdu language archival material collection and a series of semi-structured interviews conducted in both English and Urdu with local dancers, dance students, musicians and members of the performing arts community. 

From September through December 2011, building on his knowledge of intermediate-level Urdu, Walasek will participate in an intensive immersion-based Urdu language program in Lucknow, India, through the American Institute of India Studies. Following this program, follow-up research in Lahore will be conducted if necessary and Urdu language materials will be analyzed in detail.

The YCAR Language Award was created to support graduate students in fulfilling the language requirement for the Graduate Diploma in Asian Studies (GDAS) and to facilitate awardees master's or doctoral-level research.

Veronica Javier (left) graduated from 91��ɫ with a master’s degree in social work from the School of Social Work during the 2011 Spring Convocation ceremonies. She also holds an honours bachelor degree with a major in sociology and minor in religious studies.

Javier is currently a research assistant for the Filipino Youth Transitions in Canada research project with Professor Philip Kelly. In addition, she is also a writer for the first Filipino-Canadian family and lifestyle magazine, TAHANAN, and has a regular section, titled “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives; featuring astonishing and inspiring stories of everyday heroes”.

Her practise research paper (PRP) brought to light the lived-experiences of Filipino-Canadian youth in Canada. Her research demonstrated how youth are challenging ideas around the role of religion in the construction of their “ethnic” identity within a Eurocentric and neoliberal Canadian context. The youth see themselves as active agents in negotiating how they could continue to fit in while being a proactive Catholic in contrast to the secular Canadian norm.

During their process of re-negotiation, the youth’s Filipino identity moved to the background and their Canadian and Catholic identity became more important. Their repositioning of their “ethnic” and religious identity is reflective of the ways in which the youth’s subject position intersects within the whiteness that operates in Canadian society. For these youth, their renegotiation utilizes a personal and experiential language that individualizes experiences and therefore also enables them to negotiate the imperfections within Catholicism.

Javier hopes that her research will contribute to the creation and implementation of more culturally sensitive social services programs that will better assist and take into consideration the lived, post-settlement experiences of Filipino-Canadians.

Her PRP was supported by the David Wurfel Award, which enabled her to bring to light not just the voices of the youth, but also a fuller picture of their lives. The financial assistance allowed her to travel to various Filipino youth events within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as well as to meet her research participants in different points in the GTA. 

Javier's research gave her a better understanding of the environments of which the youth were a part. She was also able to give an honorarium for their participation and cover any expenses that her research participants incurred during the interview, such as meals and transportation. Finally, the award gave her freedom to network within the Filipino-Canadian community through community events, symposiums and conferences in order to better understand the issues the Filipino community is facing, especially the youth, and how she can ultimately be of service to them in the near future.

The award was established in 2006 by Senior YCAR Research Associate Dr. David Wurfel. He wanted to contribute to the emergence of a new generation of Filipino leadership that is grounded in the country’s history, culture and public affairs. Dr. Wurfel is a Philippine specialist who received his PhD from Cornell University's Southeast Asia Program.

Sara L. Jackson (right) is the 2011 recipient of the Albert C.W. Chan Foundation Fellowship. She has a BA in international studies from the University of Washington and an MA in geography from the University of British Columbia. She began her PhD at 91��ɫ in geography in 2009, after lecturing at the Metropolitan State College of Denver and the National University of Mongolia. Last summer, she was a language fellow at the American Center for Mongolian Studies in Ulaanbaatar.

Her dissertation research looks at the political and cultural impacts of mining-related infrastructure development in Mongolia’s South Gobi province. She will conduct ethnographic research in Ulaanbaatar and the regions surrounding the Oyu Tolgoi gold-copper mine beginning this coming fall.

Jackson is also working on a graphic novel with an illustrator that draws from her research experiences. It will be translated and distributed in Mongolia. The working title of her dissertation is Building a Gold Rush: Imagining New Territory in Mongolia’s South Gobi.

The Albert C.W. Chan Foundation Fellowship was established by the Albert C.W. Chan Foundation to encourage and assist 91��ɫ graduate students to conduct field research in East and/or Southeast Asia. YCAR would like to thank the Albert C. W. Chan family for their support of 91��ɫ graduate students.

For more information on any of the awards, visit the YCAR website.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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This series is an opportunity for graduate students conducting research on Asia and the Asian diaspora to present their research-in-progress to graduate students and a 91��ɫ faculty member. It is intended for 91��ɫ students in graduate programs in the social sciences, humanities, fine arts, natural sciences and professional schools to get presentation experience and valuable feedback on their research in a friendly and supportive environment.

Guidelines for submissions:

• Deadline for abstract submissions for the 2011 Graduate Student Workshop series is Dec. 20. Send submissions to Miriam Katz at windgeek@york.ca.
• Presentation proposals should include a title and a short abstract of 250 words. Proposals should be related to research concerning Asia or Asian diaspora.
• Students should also provide a short list of two or three potential 91��ɫ faculty members that they would like to comment on their research at the seminar and should indicate whether they have already approached the faculty members about this possibility. Note that each workshop presentation will have one faculty member discussant.
• Submissions should also include a selection of dates between January and April 2011, when the student is unavailable to present, to assist with event scheduling.

YCAR was established in 2002 to advance the academic study of Asia (South, East and Southeast) and the Asian diaspora. It promotes excellence in research on historic and contemporary Asia and Asian diaspora communities. The centre cooperates with many partners at 91��ɫ, across Canada and internationally to promote public understanding of Asia and Asian diasporas and Canada’s multiple engagements with the region.

For more information, visit the YCAR website.

Questions regarding submissions or this series can be directed to Miriam Katz at windgeek@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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Right: Peter Van Loan speaking at 91��ɫ

Van Loan talked about “Canadian Opportunities in Asia-Pacific” at the event, which was co-hosted by and 91��ɫ’s Office of the Associate Vice-President International.

"Minister Van Loan delivered a very encouraging message on how much Canada is doing to promote free and open trade, and the importance we are once again attaching to the Asia-Pacific region,"  said Lorna Wright, 91��ɫ’s associate vice-president international.  "The panelists were able to offer the seminar participants advice from their own experiences of operating successfully in Asia-Pacific.

"One striking piece of information that many may not have thought about was given by Jill Anderson, president and CEO of Aecometric Corporation, a leading company in industrial combustion equipment," noted Wright. "She said that China is now a great starting point for moving into African and Middle Eastern markets.”

Left: President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri (left), Peter Van Loan and Dezsö Horváth, dean of the Schulich School of Business

Workshops such as these help Canada prepare for the November meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group in Yokohama, Japan, said Van Loan. “APEC meetings aim to strengthen trade and investment cooperation in the region. We have strong ties across the Pacific, and we want to increase opportunities for Canadian businesses in this highly dynamic region.”

The successful event was part of 91��ɫ’s continuing initiative to boost internationalization and awareness of international opportunities in business as well as research.

“Our University has built a strong reputation, both here and abroad, for the quality of our academic programs, for the calibre of our graduating students and for our outreach to and research partnerships with the business community,” said  91��ɫ President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri. "This success is evident with our more than 240,000 alumni worldwide, many located in the APEC region, who are making significant contributions in this increasingly interconnected world.”

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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If you pass a law to prevent discrimination against persons with disabilities, how do you know whether it’s being enforced, let alone making a difference?

Marcia Rioux (right), director of the 91��ɫ Institute for Health Research (YIHR) and professor in the Faculty of Health’s School of Health Policy & Management, is working internationally, particularly with countries with limited resources, to develop a unique and innovation solution for the reporting requirements set out in the United Nation’s .

The United Nations requires all governments that have ratified its Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities − as Canada did on , 2010 − to provide information on the measures they have taken to integrate persons with disabilities into their societies. But this reporting is often limited to cataloguing laws, policies, and programs that may have little impact on the day-to-day lives of the people they’re intended to help.

Disability Rights Promotion International (DRPI), a multi-year international collaborative project, is establishing a global monitoring system to address disability discrimination. The research project, based in YIHR, is led by Rioux and Bengt Lindqvist − a former Cabinet Minister in Sweden, former UN Special Rapporteur on Disability, and long-time activist on disability rights. The team includes a group of 91��ɫ researchers and international colleagues who are creating a roadmap that will allow countries to evaluate their laws, policies and programs to comply with the United Nations’ standards.

“Collecting and reporting on evidence-based data forces governments to acknowledge that the challenges people with disabilities face are not just anecdotal,” says Rioux. “Our project allows evaluation to happen within the context of the experiences of people with disabilities to objectively measure where discrimination is now while developing and tracking solid trend data to determine if and how things are getting better.”

In September, the Africa Regional Monitoring Centre opened its doors in Kigali, Rwanda and will act as a focal point for disability monitoring and reporting in the region. Agreements with centres in Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America are expected in the near future. The (SIDA) awarded the research team over $2 million in 2009 to open the four regional centres.

Each centre will act as a focal point for monitoring disability rights in that region, and will play a key role in empowering local people with disabilities to lead disability rights monitoring projects. “Regional monitoring is most sustainable when local people are involved since it puts long-term roots into the community,” says Rioux. “The vast majority of disabled people around the world face endemic poverty − many don’t have jobs or go to school or have basic literacy skills. Engaging people with disabilities to lead this process is a more holistic approach to addressing the challenges they face, both as individuals and a collective.”

When all four centres are operational, Rioux anticipates that hundreds of people with disabilities will be engaged in disability rights monitoring activities. The centres will host training on what disability means as a human right, how to collect data and conduct evidence-based research, and how to write and file human rights reports. Groundwork is also being laid to connect monitors with disabilities to other local rights-seeking groups, such as religious-based, race-based and gender-based, to get them coordinating their efforts together instead of separately.

"The Faculty of Health’s worldwide research aims to help people live healthier lives while co-creating rejuvenated health systems,” says Harvey Skinner, dean of Health. “Professor Rioux's research is an excellent example of how 91��ɫ University is on the front line of our increasingly complex, simultaneously global and local world."

Previous phases of this project focused on developing and piloting tools and methods to monitor disability rights. In 2006, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ()’s Community-University Research Alliances program provided Rioux and her team with just under $1 million to fund Monitoring the Human Rights of People with Disabilities in Canada, which is currently in its last of five years.

In 2008, Rioux also received a two-year $40,000 grant from to research disability and social, economic and cultural rights. She has also received funding from the , and been invited to consult with governments and disabled persons associations around the globe to discuss disability rights. Recently, she and her team wrote the chapter on disability rights monitoring for the .

“Professor Rioux’s disability rights research reflects both the value 91��ɫ places on social justice and her expertise in leading large-scale collaborative research projects of international significance,” says Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “This type of knowledge mobilization is a crucial step in making governments more accountable for the social policies they set, and reflects the social input that’s possible when expertise is globally shared.”

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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“The suburbs have not received a lot of attention, so we’re trying to shift the lens, so to speak,” says Keil, director of the City Institute at 91��ɫ (CITY). “Urbanization is at the core of the growth and crisis of the global economy today. Yet, the crucial aspect of 21st-century urban development is suburbanization, which is defined as the combination of an increase in non-central city population and economic activity, as well as urban spatial expansion.”

Left: Suburbs being built in 91��ɫ Region. Photo by Roger Keil.

With $2.5 million in research funding through the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada’s program, Keil, along with some 43 researchers from around the globe, will study various aspects of what he likes to call the in-between city. Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land and Infrastructure in the 21st Century is “the first major research project that takes stock of worldwide suburban developments in a systematic way. By studying suburbs, we analyze recent forms of urbanization and emerging forms of urbanism across the world, but we also take into view the dilemmas of aging suburbanity,” he says. Canadian suburbanization and suburbanism trends will serve as a critical basis for understanding suburbanization in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.

What makes suburbs so important to study is their abundant growth. In the 1800s, only about two per cent of the world’s population was urbanized. That increased to about 10 per cent in the 1900s and to almost 50 per cent in the early 2000s. The suburbs are changing and growing, and, in North America at least, they are becoming the place to be. “It’s a percentage increase but also a real increase because the world population has risen dramatically,” says Keil. “More and more people don’t live in dense urban centres anymore, they live in suburbs. So now we call it suburbanization instead of urbanization.” Canada is one of the most highly urbanized countries in the world and that includes the suburbs. When people immigrate to Canada, they often move straight to the suburbs, places like Brampton and Markham, bypassing cities like Toronto altogether.

Right: Roger Keil

The question then becomes, “When we see a suburb, how do we understand it? We want to create a different way of looking at things,” says Keil. “We also hope in the process…this information becomes useful to users of suburban spaces, where they consume and produce, as well as to developers.”

By examining the governance of suburbanization, researchers will get a better idea of how development is guided and regulated, and how state, market and civil society actors are involved. The seven-year project is comprised of many smaller studies of two to four years in length. The two prime anchors will be land – housing, shelter systems, real estate, greenbelts and megaprojects – and infrastructure, including transportation, water and social services.

Keil’s own keen interest is in greenbelts and the relationships between natural and social, urban and suburban. How, for instance, does water fit in? Where does it come from, a pipe, a lake, a well? What is the relationship of suburbanization to water? How is it used? “We need to develop alternatives and this is particularly true in environmental metabolism of waste disposal, water, smog. The energy use has increased…the environmental bads growing out of suburbs have outpaced suburbanization,” he says. “We all live in one environmental global space.” There is a need to understand that interconnectivity.

Left: Suburb of Kuisebmond in Namibia, Africa. Photo by Roger Keil.

In the process of studying suburbanization, researchers will be up against the traditional biases and ingrained way people think about the areas surrounding the city core, often as urban sprawl. “We need to break down and expand the way people look at the suburbs,” says Keil. There is not just one type of suburban development. There are the squatter settlements in Africa and Latin America, the expanding outskirts of India and China, the peripheral high-rise developments in Europe and Canada, and North America’s gated communities. With the different types of development come different social and cultural norms, land-use patterns and forms of transportation. “Through one lens we say these are all suburbanizations.” Until now, there has been “no serious attempt to bring all these phenomena together.”

This project will look at the differences between central cities and suburbs, as well as the diversity of suburban development. “Suburbs are very diverse ethnically, culturally and lifestyle-wise and the gender roles are not as traditional as 'Leave it to Beaver' may have led us to believe.” People around the world have negotiated the suburban realm in a variety of different ways.

New forms of suburbanization are being created all the time. There are copycat North American suburbs in Calcutta, for instance. Keil expects that suburbs around the world have different trajectories of where they’re going and he hopes that they can learn from one another. As it turns out, all cities and suburbs are not looking like Los Angeles or Chicago, as once thought. “We’re turning that upside down,” says Keil. “Conceptually, we want to rewrite the books. The suburbs can all be understood under a number of guidelines we want to develop. So there is a common lens we can look through despite the large variety of forms we see.”

In addition to the various studies, classes, workshops and conferences will held around the world. There will be a travelling multimedia exhibition at the end, a book series and a series of documentaries produced in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada. 91��ɫ’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit will connect the research with policy-makers and community organizations over the span of the project.

Through this project, the suburbs may finally get a little respect.

For more information, visit the CITY Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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