The myth of the North American city : continentalism challenged
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Bibliographic Information
The myth of the North American city : continentalism challenged
University of British Columbia Press, 1986
- pbk.
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Note
Bibliography: p. [259]-298
Includes indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The continuing tendency to "continentalize" Canadian issues has been particularly marked in the area of urban studies where United States-based research findings, methodologies and attitudes have held sway. This text demonstrates that the label "North American city" is inappropriate and misleading in discussion of the distinctive Canadian urban environment. Examining such elements of the cultural context as mass values, social and demographic structures, the economy and political institutions, they reveal salient differences between Canada and the United States. One of the most important of the many contextual differences is the strong collective sense in Canada which accepts more public intervention to individualism. Canadians, consequently, expect a livable central city which is compact and well-served by public transit and which has a fiscally sound local government. To demonstrate these issues, the discussion includes a detailed cross-national empirical analysis of over 300 North American metropolitan areas along some three dozen dimensions, including density, transportation, household change and structure, income and fiscal disparities and economic structure.
Since much urban planning in Canada is based upon the continentalist assumption, this volume should generate a reassessment of policy and encourage the development of a research base to suit the distinctiveness of the Canadian experience. With growing pressures to take a North American view of Canadian policies it is vitally important that the differences delineated in this book are understood, not just for their urban policy implications but for broader purposes as well.
Table of Contents
- On comparing American and Canadian cities
- Values and culture: a context for comparing American and Canadian cities
- Social and demographic structures in Canada and the United States
- Economic organization and economic institutions in Canada and the United States: the fuel for urban growth and change
- Political structure, culture and institutions in Canada and the United States
- Urban form and institutions in Canada and the United States
- Urban form and social characteristics
- Urban local government: structure and finance
- A multivariate approach to metropolitan differences
- Making plain the difference.
by "Nielsen BookData"
