In this review, I will outline the ways in which Lefebvre’s (2003) classic text, The Urban Revolution, can help us to understand what I call the global urban problematic – or the dialectical relationship between space and spatial arrangements and human society and social relations on a global scale – and how an understanding of this global urban problematic is important for those engaged in revolutionary politics and full-fledged revolutionary movements in the 21st century.

In the last two decades, cities have received a wealth of scholarly attention. Geographers,2 urban planners,3 sociologists,4 philosophers,5 economists,6 and political scientists7 have viewed subjects such as economic competition,8 citizenship,9 social cohesion10 and regulation and governance11 through the lens of cities’ lived and built environments. Many contemporary scholars view the urban as a key site for the negotiation, propagation, and contestation of various globalized phenomena.

In March 2010 CURL partnered up with Artscape and The Firehouse to produce a series of 8 videos from the Creative Places & Spaces conference which took place on October 29-20, 2009 in Toronto . We hope that these video will spark some discussion about the idea of a creative and collaborative city.

This video highlights Charles’ keynote presentation at Creative Places + Spaces where he underlines how innovating bureaucracy is the challenge for everyone to turn their cities into great places. Landry believes that if we can make government more creative and more collaborative, we make our communities better.

In Toronto, public housing is getting a massive do-over. Well, at least in part. Witness the Regent Park revitalization: Within the last year, vertically dense, glass and concrete structures with the look and basic amenities of the better condos that line the Gardiner Expressway rose up near Dundas and Parliament.
The buildings reflect light, unlike their [...]

Every iPhoneur (the post-post-modern flaneur) operates in a state of flow when they are perambulating around the city with their camera poised: walking, observing, discerning. Every picture (“capture” in the iPhoneur’s lingo) represents a unique, timeless and irreproducible moment of truth. Each pathway to that enlightened photo is unique…..
Is it?
As much as I would like [...]

Top Up
Top Up has come to my neighbourhood. Born in the upper crusty Leasides in the 90s it crept across the Millwood bridge and has reproduced on every street. Beige stuccoed boxes are replacing homegrown, affordable, in-need-of-love worker’s cottages and three bedroom homes. The decharacterization of East York has begun.
My five year old thinks it [...]