‘It's Not Going to be Suburban, It's Going to be All Urban’: Assembling Post‐suburbia in the Toronto and Chicago Regions

Abstract

Urban and suburban politics are increasingly intertwined in regions that aspire to be global. Powerful actors in the Chicago and Toronto regions have mobilized regional space to brand rescaled images of the urban experience, but questions remain as to who constructs and who can access the benefits of these revised spatial identities. Local political interests have tended to be obfuscated in the regional milieu, most problematically in the spaces between the gentrified inner cities, privileged growth nodes, and the glamorized suburban subdivisions and exurban spaces beyond the city limits. This article analyses how socio‐spatial changes in post‐suburbanizing urban fringes contribute to the way regions are being reconfigured and reimagined. Guided by current debates at the intersection of assemblage theory and critical urban political economy, our analysis demonstrates how socio‐technical infrastructures, policy mobilities and political economic relations are spatially aligned, sustained and dissolved in splintering North American agglomerations. Particular attention is paid to issues of urban transportation and connectivity in uncovering multifaceted modes of suburbanism that now underlie the monistic imagery of the globalized region. Emergent regionalized topologies and territoriality blur conventional understandings of city–suburban dichotomies in extended urban areas that are now characterized by polycentric post‐suburban constellations. In terms of their substance and functionality, ‘real existing' regions are currently re‐territorialized as complex assemblages that are embedded in a neoliberalizing political economy whose politics and identities are only beginning to be revealed.

Impact of Suburbanisation on Sustainable Development of Settlements in Suburban Spaces: Smart and New Solutions

“…At present and in general terms, the suburbs are very difficult to define [4], and it is equally difficult to delimitate rural and nonrural municipalities and areas [5]. Currently, some studies already point to the fact that it is no longer appropriate to use the traditional division of urban spaces into a central and suburban area [6,7], because the current world is already in the posturban phase [8]. According to such studies, it is suitable to reflect on new challenges, such as greater emphasis on the quality of the environment, the conservation of biodiversity and the use of new technologies that reduce energy consumption or ensure the production of energy from renewable sources.…”

Scripting Indian and Chinese urban spatial transformation: Adding new narratives to gentrification and suburbanisation research

“…Comparing Canada and France, Charmes and Keil (2015) describe densification and urbanity introduced into the periphery urban areas. Keil and Addie (2015) demonstrate an urban feature of suburban Toronto and Chicago. Nüssli and Schmid (2016) examined the former urban periphery of Zurich North and found that the development of a tramline ‘led to a more densely woven and connected urban fabric primarily providing spaces for the headquarter economy and middle-class housing’ (p. 679).…”

The Urban Majority and Provisional Recompositions in Yangon

“…Instantiations of the urban appear increasingly indifferent to specific definitional criteria. They embody a highly uncertain mix of standardized, transmutable imaginaries, obdurate institutional and governance arrangements, volatile political contestation, and global connectivities (Brenner and Schmid ; Keil and Addie ). While the specific intersections of divergent locational advantages, demographic histories, settlement patterns, modalities of accumulation and regulation would seem to constitute occasions for problem‐solving and world‐making that rely upon the inclinations and practices of majority residents, policies and development trajectories seem increasingly indifferent to them.…”