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