Reports heralding the death of suburbs are greatly exaggerated; instead, suburbs in North America continue to expand. The fourth event in the Towards Suburbia Speaker Series will address this, and other common misconceptions about suburbs, on Oct. 4.
This event, presented as the fourth in the Towards Suburbia Speaker Series by the Major Collaborative Research Initiative Global Suburbanisms, led by York University Research Chair Roger Keil of the Faculty of Environmental Studies, runs from 5:30 to 7:30pm at the Urbanspace Gallery, 401 Richmond St., Toronto.
Once people move to the suburbs they soon realize the economic inequality and poverty is just as rife as in the city. The suburbs, and the way people are living in them, are more complicated than their public image gives them credit for.
University of Waterloo Associate Professor of planning Markus Moos and Robert Walter-Joseph, a planner with Weston Consulting, will discuss “suburbanisms” as particular ways of living. Moos is the team lead for the Major Collaborative Research Initiative Global Suburbanisms, lead author of the Atlas of Suburbanisms blog and founder of Generationed City.
The event will also be a book launch for Still Detached and Subdivided? Suburban Ways of Living in 21st-Century North America, edited by Moos and co-edited by Walter-Joseph. There will be live music, a suburban-themed exhibit and a Q&A with the authors.
The event leads up to After Suburbia, the final conference of a long-term research initiative on global suburbanization hosted by York University Oct. 19 to 21, which brings leading local and global scholars together.
The series continues with more speakers, who will discuss different aspects of suburbia on the following dates:
Rob Shields, University of Alberta
Oct. 11, from 12:30 to 2pm
140 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building
Keele campus, York University
Andre Ortega, University of Philippines
Nov. 8, from 12:30 to 2pm
140 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building
Keele campus, York University
Liette Gilbert, York University
Nov. 29, from 12:30 to 2pm
140 Health, Nursing & Environmental Studies Building
Keele campus, York University
For more information on the series, visit suburbs.info.yorku.ca/towardssuburbia.