Bringing together some of the most respected scholars in the discipline, Canadian Urban Regions: Trajectories of Growth and Change is an innovative exploration of current trends and developments in urban geography. Combining theoretical perspectives with contemporary insights, the text reveals how the economic welfare of Canada is increasingly determined by the capacity of its cities to function as sites of innovation, creativity, skilled labour formation, specialized production, and global-local interaction. The text moves from building a contextual framework, on to practical case studies about evolving political, economic, and urban changes in five of Canada's major cities - Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver - before finally moving on to a discussion of the future of the discipline.

Larry S. Bourne's profile page

Tom Hutton's profile page

Richard Shearmur's profile page

Jim Simmons' profile page

Larry S. Bourne is Professor Emeritus of Geography and Planning and past Director of both the Graduate Program in Planning and the Centre for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS) at the University of Toronto. Professor Bourne is currently a senior scholar with the Global Cities Program and has just completed a term as Interim Director of the University's new Cities Centre in 2008. He received a B.A. (Hons.) in Geography from the University of Western Ontario, an M.A. from Alberta, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1966. Following a year as a post-doctoral research fellow in regional economic development he took up a position at the University of Toronto. He has since held visiting professor positions in Los Angeles, Melbourne, London, OECD (Paris), Warsaw, Texas and Tokyo.

Tom Hutton is a Professor and Associate Director at the Centre for Human Settlements and School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia. His research agenda concerns processes and outcomes of industrial restructuring in the metropolis. He is currently collaborating on an investigation of cultural economic development; a project on cultural development policy in Italy; and a comparative study of planning innovation for the Metro Vancouver and Amsterdam - North Holland regions. He has published extensively on urban geography subjects.

Richard Shearmur is a researching professor at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Urbanisation Culture at the Université du Québec at Montreal. He is the holder of the Canada Chair in Spatial Statistics and Public Policy and has a varied academic background, having studied Land Economy at Cambridge, worked for five years as a chartered surveyor and international property consultant in Europe, then completed a Master's in Urban Planning at McGill and a PhD in Economic Geography at University of Montreal. He has published widely on questions of regional development, peripheral regions, metropolitan economies, urban form and, more recently, on the geography of innovation. He also regularly acts as a consultant to municipal, provincial, and federal government departments in Canada.

Jim Simmons is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto, and Senior Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity at Ryerson University. He has been studying Urban Geography for more than forty years. He began his teaching career at the University of Western Ontario and relocated to the University of Toronto in 1967. Simmons' main area of research is the Canadian urban system, where he has worked with his colleague, Larry Bourne. He has written several books and over eighty articles and research reports about commercial activity.

"An important and necessary book in the field of Canadian urban studies. The authors present an analysis of the most recent data available... The text is timely and much needed." --Walter Peace, McMaster University

"It makes a significant contribution to Canadian urban scholarship... written by an impressive team of urban scholars from across the country." --Douglas Young, York University

"The book is unique and important in that it focuses on the economies of urban regions and the causes and consequences of the evolution of such economies. More specifically, it focuses on the labour market configuration of those economies as means of exploring a wider range of economic development issues not only within but also beyond the individual city regions." "This book should be in every classroom that deals with the relationship between metropolitan governance, planning, and development." --Joseph Garcea, University of Saskatchewan

"Fills a major void in the literature: we need studies of the Canadian urban system." --Larry McCann, University of Victoria