2191 Major MacKenzie Dr W
Vaughan
ON L6A 4W2
A Planet of Suburbs: How We Live in the 21st Century
The 21st century is often called the urban century because more than half of us now live in cities. In reality, though, the urban century emerges at the margin. Most of the twenty-first century’s startling urban growth worldwide is happening at the peripheries
This talk is about the process that creates the global urban periphery – suburbanization – and the ways of life – suburbanisms -- we encounter there. Illustrated with examples from around the world, the presentation argues that suburbanization is a global process, and part of the extended urbanization of the planet. This includes the gated communities of the elites, the squatter settlements of the poor and many built forms and ways of life on the periphery in-between. While urbanist orthodoxy opposes low-density “sprawl” for its disproportional environmental impact, the reality of life in the urban century is suburban: most of the earth’s future 10 billion inhabitants will not live in conventional cities but in suburban constellations of one kind or another.
Presented by: Professor Roger Keil
About Professor Roger Keil
Professor Roger Keil has been at York University since 1992 where he is currently the York Research Chair in Global Sub/Urban Studies as well as a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. He researches global suburbanization, urban political ecology and regional governance and is the Principal Investigator of the Major Collaborative Research Initiative on Global Suburbanisms. He is a co-founder of the International Network for Urban Research and Action (INURA) and he was the inaugural director of the CITY Institute at York University. He has been active in a variety of urban community initiatives in Toronto and elsewhere.
**All sessions held at the Civic Centre Resource Library from 7 to 8:30pm. Attendance is free but registration is required. Refreshments provided. To register, visit alumniandfriends.yorku.ca/vpl-scholars-hub (link will become active closer to the event date)
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