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Trevor Barnes and Tom Hutton
University of British Columbia
Presentation to ISRN – MCRI II
The Kingbridge Centre, King City, ON
4 – 5 May 2006

A.
Perspectives on recent research and its relevance to the ISRN
MCRI II Project
[ Tom Hutton ]
B.
Some preliminary thoughts on the Vancouver Case Study
[ Trevor Barnes ]

• Central motif of research : explore intersections of ‘process’ and
‘place’ in the emergence of new industry sites, clusters, and labour among advanced and transitional cities
• Thematic emphasis: interrogation of “causality and consequence” in industrial restructuring episodes of the last 20 years – including
(1) the postindustrial city, (2) the ‘New Economy’ of the city, and (3) the ‘creative city’
• Enduring significance of ‘place’: a specific city is “incontestably a repository of distinctive cultures” (Scott 1997: 324)
• Spatial reference: continuing role of the central / inner city as salient terrain of experimentation, innovation, restructuring, and dislocation

• ‘Foundational’ theory and concepts
• New production regimes and narratives of “ industrial urbanism ”
(Soja 2002)
• Industrial restructuring and the “ spatial divisions of labour” in the city and region (Massey 1984)
• Proliferation of new industry sites and clusters as contemporary expression of the “internal specialization of production in the metropolis” (Scott 1988)

• Elements of an emergent conceptual architecture
• Centrality of art, aesthetics and amenity in the cultural economy of the city (Ley 2003)
• “Extraordinary social nature of advanced economies” (Thrift and
Olds 1996)
• Acknowledgement of policy factors in ‘induced’ processes of creative / knowledge-based sites and clusters (Evans 2004)
• Destabilising role of property markets and the relayering of capital: positive and negative externalities (Pratt 2006)

• ‘Reconstructed production landscapes in the postmodern city’,
Urban Geography [2000] 21 : 285-317
• ‘The New Economy of the inner city’, Cities [2004] 21 : 89-108
• ‘Service industries, globalization, and urban restructuring within the
AsiaPacific: new development trajectories and planning responses’
[2004] Progress in Planning 61 : 1-74
• ‘Post-industrialism, post-modernism and the reproduction of
Vancouver’s central area: retheorising the 21 st century city’, Urban
Studies [2004] 41 : 1953-1982
• (w/ Peter Daniels and K. C. Ho) Service Industries and Asia-Pacific
Cities: new development trajectories. London: Routledge 2005
• ‘Spatiality, built form, and creative industry development in the inner city’, Environment and Planning A [forthcoming]

• Urban Studies special theme issue (w/ Trevor Barnes) on
‘Trajectories of the New Economy: an international investigation of inner city regeneration and dislocation’
• Monograph in preparation: The New Economy of the Inner City
(Routledge ‘research in economic geography’ series) [evolution of the ‘new industrial district’, draws from field work in London,
Singapore, San Francisco, Florence and Vancouver]
• Papers on ‘cultural production in the transnational city’, ‘evolving production models and typologies of the central city’
• Supervision of student thesis work: Naomi Pope (Vancouver and
Seattle), Yvonne Hii (Liberty Village, Toronto), Sheng Zhong
(Suzhou Creek in Shanghai), Jason Blackman (Montreal)
• New MCRI II project with Trevor Barnes in the Vancouver case study
– see part B of this presentation . . . .

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1. Vancouver as ‘post-corporate’ economy
• Erosion of head office function – legacy of global processes, corporate mergers, acquisitions, e.g., decline and fall of MacMillan
Bloedel (RIP)
2. Vancouver as post-staples city
• The end of staples Fordism, and the beginning of post-staples, post-
Fordism – eg., no wood products operation remains within
Vancouver City.
3. Vancouver as ‘transnational urbanism’
• International immigration as major influence on labour market development, entrepreneurship, and industry formation. E.g., > 37% foreign born, > 16% immigrant population 1991-2001

• City of Vancouver = one-quarter of metro population (but larger share of employment, especially in specialised occupations)
• Within City, emergence of new industry clusters in the old inner city and former wholesaling/manufacturing areas: Yaletown,
Victory Square, Gastown, False Creek Flats
• Major industrial clusters: Port, VYR, inner city, UBC and SFU,
Discovery Parks, Regional Town Centres (RTCs)
• Suburbanisation of high-tech activities (Ballard Power Systems, and Electronic Arts, Burnaby; McDonald Dettwiler, Richmond)

NeoMarshallian’ specialised production ensembles and new divisions of labour in Yaletown, CBD fringe, Victory Square,
Gastown, False Creek Flats
• Episodic and volatile
• Bound up with amenity, new consumption spaces, refurbishment and redevelopment, high density residential spaces

• Massive residential densification within downtown Vancouver over the last 15 years – Concord Pacific (False Creek); Marathon Realty
(Coal Harbour)
• New downtown economy based on residential development, consumption and amenity?
• Vancouver City imposed a 2 year moratorium on conversion of office to residential space in order to study if such a downtown economy is sustainable

• Emergence of Vancouver as exemplary ‘transnational city, economy, and society’ (Hiebert et al). High rates of International immigration, vibrant multiculturalism, diverse talent and knowledge-based economy, animated ‘creative class’
• Vancouver as a post-colonial site of inter-cultural production, fusion and transmission of knowledge, information, and values.
• Transnationalism and innovation in the SME economy: (1) inputs
(diverse knowledge, values, traditions), (2) processes (work practices, synergies), (3) entrepreneurship (‘adroitness’, responsiveness), (4) connectivity and linkages (market knowledge, potential offshore recruitment and out-sourcing)

The ‘Institutional turn’: ‘thickness’ and the relational geographies of production in the knowledge-based economy
• Civic and municipal governments including Planning Departments
• Role of educational institutions in facilitating knowledge production and exchange in the City [e.g. SFU, UBC, ECIADM, Great Northern
Way Campus, BCIT, etc.]
• Institutional basis of social interaction, exchange and innovation in
Vancouver’s metropolitan core (downtown and inner city amenity and consumption spaces)

• Strong forces of generation and development in Vancouver producing new firm formation (externalities and spill-overs)
• Set against expanding and booming residential housing market of gentrification and redevelopment
• Civil society of David Ley’s “new middle class” and concomitant urban landscape
• But also sometimes severe dislocation – firms, labour, and particularly existing residents (Downtown Eastside)
• Multi-level and multi-form governance structure to cope with dislocation.

• Film and tv production
• Electronic games and videos
• Design and architecture
• Biotech
• Education institutions catering to off-shore students