L’enracinement de l’après-fordisme au Canada : retombées régionales et perspectives d’avenir

Cet article propose une interprétation de l'évolution de l'économie canadienne depuis les années soixante-dix à la lumière de la théorie de la régulation. Une telle perspective permet de tisser des liens conceptuels entre globalisation économique, pertes d'emplois dans les pays développés, recul de l'État-providence et virages vers la droite sur la scène politique. Nous attribuons à l'après-fordisme le découplage croissant entre production et consommation, le déclin et la polarisation des revenus, ainsi que la crise des finances publiques, qui caractérisent l'évolution économique canadienne au cours des 25 dernières années. Le texte s'intéresse aussi aux conséquences régionales de l'après-fordisme au Canada, en particulier à la concentration de la croissance économique sur des territoires de plus en plus restreints et à la piètre performance de la majorité des régions. La conclusion examine la possibilité que certaines formes alternatives de développement économique prenant racine dans les régions désavantagées puissent éventuellement contribuer à une évolution de la société au-delà de l'après-fordisme.This paper interprets the evolution of the Canadian economy since the early 1970s from the perspective of regulation theory. This framework makes it possible to draw conceptual links between economic globalization, job losses in developed countries, retrenchment of the welfare state, and political shifts to the right. It portrays post-Fordism as a source of income decline and polarization, disjunction between production and consumption, and fiscal crisis, which together mark the evolution of the Canadian economy over the last 25 years. The paper focuses on the regional consequences of post-Fordism in Canada, in particular on the concentration of economic growth in areas whose size is increasingly limited and on the poor performance of most regions. It concludes by exploring the possibility for alternative, small scale, forms of economic development to emerge in economically declining regions, and eventually contribute to the replacement of post-Fordism

Suburban Innovations

This commentary addresses the evolution of the North American suburb over the last 70 years, a period over which it adopted a development pattern marking a radical break from prior forms of urban settlement. Early in this period, the emerging suburban form constituted perhaps the sharpest transition in the history of urbanism in terms of urban form and transportation. This suburban form rapidly came to dominate North American metropolitan regions and spread to other parts of the world. In this commentary, I propose a brief history of the North American suburb since the late 1940s seen through the lens of the contributions it made to the evolution of urbanism across the continent. I contend that while suburbs are often associated with urban stasis, because perceived as an impediment to the emergence of new environmentally sensitive and socially and functionally integrated urban formulas relying on public transit and walking, they have played a major transformative role in the past and may be the source of further urban transitions in the future. North American suburbs have also undergone deep social changes over the last decades. However, I question the claim, made by some researchers, that we are entering a post-suburban era; but at the same time, I acknowledge the possibility of major future innovations within present suburban configurations

Enduring Features of the North American Suburb: Built Form, Automobile Orientation, Suburban Culture and Political Mobilization

As any social phenomenon, the evolution of suburbs can be seen as at the confluence of two contradictory sets of forces. There are first forces of change, which propel suburbs in new directions. Much of the present literature on suburbs highlights suburban transitions in the form of social and economic diversification, and of new forms of development. The article attempts to rebalance the discourse on suburbs by emphasizing forces of durability. It does not deny the importance of observed suburban transitions, but argues that there is, at the heart of North American suburbs, an enduring automobility-induced transportation dynamic, which reverberates on most aspects of suburbs. The article explores the mechanisms undergirding suburban durability by linking the suburban transportation dynamic to the self-reproductive effects of a suburban lifestyle and culture and their political manifestations. These forces impede planning attempts to transform suburbs in ways that make them more environmentally sustainable. To empirically ground its argument, the article draws on two Toronto region case studies illustrating processes assuring the persistence of the durable features of North American suburbs: the layout of large suburban multifunctional centres and the themes raised by Rob Ford during his successful 2010 mayoralty electoral campaign

Changing Patterns of Residential Centrality : Population and Household Shift in Large Canadian CMAs, 1971-1996.

Cet article se penche sur l'évolution, entre 1971 et 1996, des régions métropolitaines canadiennes dont la population atteint ou excède 500 000 personnes. Il se sert de gradients mesurant la densité résidentielle ainsi que des changements de population dans différentes zones d'urbanisation afin d'illustrer les tendances ayant trait à la centralité résidentielle au cours des vingt-cinq dernières années. Cette recherche indique que toutes les régions métropolitaines analysées ont connu, avec divers degrés d'intensité, une tendance à la décentralisation. Lorsque les changements de population dans le centre-ville et les quartiers centraux sont considérés de pair avec un nivellement des gradients de densité, seule Vancouver montre des signes incontestables de recentralisation. Trois autres régions, Toronto, Victoria et Calgary, jouissent aussi d'une hausse de population dans leurs quartiers centraux. Bien que souffrant d'une forte baisse de population, la densité de ces secteurs demeure élevée à Montréal et Québec. Leur centralité est cependant résiduelle, legs des fortes densités du passé. La prise en compte des ménages plutôt que des résidents montre que toutes les régions métropolitaines examinées dans cette recherche ont fait l'objet de nouvelles constructions dans leurs secteurs centraux. Selon les données employées, nous observons une décentralisation ou une certaine centralisation des régions métropolitaines. La principale conclusion de cet article est que la recentralisation des régions métropolitaines est fortement associée à leur prospérité et à leur taux de croissance.The research focuses on Canadian CMAs with populations of 500 000 or greater over the period 1971-1996. It uses population density gradients and enumeration of population and household shift to assess changing patterns of residential centrality over the twenty-five year period. Results indicate that all of the CMAs examined have experienced continued outward dispersion, some more so than others. When population change in core and inner-city zones is examined in conjunction with reduced density gradients, only one Canadian metropolitan area, Vancouver, shows indisputable signs of strong recentralization. Three other CMAs, Toronto, Victoria and Calgary, also experience some re-population of their central parts, while Montréal and Québec City are shown to maintain what we call "residual" centrality. However, when recentralization is gauged using household enumeration instead of population counts, all of the places studied show evidence of new housing production in the central city. The answer to the central question regarding residential centrality is thus a mixed one, yes and no. Overall, we conclude that there is a direct link between evolutionary patterns within the national urban System and changes observed in residential centrality. Whatever the measure used, highest rates of recentralization accompany strong metropolitan-wide growth over the 25-year period