A team of 50 researchers and 18 partner organizations are involved in this seven-year research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Major Collaborative Research Initiative program. Housed at the City Institute at York University (CITY), this is the first major research project to take stock of suburban developments around the world and attempt to alter the dialogue around suburban life.

We are planning to analyze recent forms of urbanization and emerging forms of (sub)urbanism as well as the dilemmas of aging suburbanity. We broadly focus on the governance of suburbanization, that is, efforts to guide and regulate its development. It involves state, market and civil society actors and implies democratic deliberation and social conflict. The categories land, which includes housing, shelter systems, real estate, greenbelts, megaprojects, and infrastructure, including transportation, water and social services, serve as the two prime anchors upon which we hinge specific research projects. Examination of Canadian suburbanization and suburbanism will serve as a basis and comparative “control” case to understand suburbanization in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.

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This research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through funding from the Major Collaborative Research Initiative “Global suburbansims: governance, land, and infrastructure in the 21^st century (2010-2017).