Urban Governance in the Knowledge Society: Exploring ‘The Learning City’
Two-Day Forum at Osgoode Professional Development Examines Challenges Facing Toronto as a Global City
TORONTO, March 2, 2009 -- The Collaborative Urban Research Laboratory at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School will host the 4th Annual Constitutional Law Roundtable, entitled The Learning City, at Osgoode Professional Development, 1 Dundas Street W., Suite 2600, on Thursday, March 5 from 1 to 7.15 p.m. and Friday, March 6 from 8.30 a.m. to 5.45 p.m. Members of the media are cordially invited to attend.
The Learning City will provide an international and interdisciplinary two-day forum for expert assessment of the myriad challenges that face Toronto as a global city. Structured around five panels that address core areas of city governance (regulatory authority, employment, access, health & environment, and infrastructure) and a sixth one on the potentialities, aspirations and dreams of the city, speakers will reflect on the contribution of their expertise and experience to the life in and the governance of today’s Toronto. Speakers will include Toronto Mayor David Miller as well as internationally renowned scholars and experts in urban governance.
The conference’s theme, The Learning City, will address the complexity of governing a global city in a fast-evolving knowledge society. As decisions by public policy-makers and private actors are made under increasing conditions of uncertainty, adaptive and responsive ‘learning’ governance modes have become the order of the day. The conference will apply the concept of urban governance in the knowledge society to the particular case of Toronto to explore the various dimensions of city administration.
In addition, the theme of the Learning City is meant to capture the role a city plays not only in local life, but also in the prosperity of the region, the province and the country in which it is located. As people’s lives become increasingly transnational and urbanized, urban governance has become one of the most important areas of interdisciplinary research, comparative study and policy-making. While this conference will engage in the debate on the knowledge challenges faced by global cities, the follow-up conference in 2010, entitled The Network City, will explore the various complex connections and relations inside and beyond the physical boundaries of today’s global cities.
Inspiration for the Learning City stems from international and interdisciplinary research on urban governance conducted by members and affiliates of the Toronto-based Collaborative Urban Research Laboratory (CURL). CURL was created in 2007 through the generous support of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario government and York University to establish the first Canadian interdisciplinary research program for the collaboration between lawyers, social scientists and documentary film makers, photographers and digital media artists on projects focusing on urban governance. CURL’s founding director is Professor Peer Zumbansen, Canada Research Chair and Associate Dean of Research, Graduate Studies and Institutional Relations at Osgoode Hall Law School.
-30-
For further information, please contact:
Virginia Corner
Communications Manager
Osgoode Hall Law School of York University
416-736-5820
