Read the full YFile here.

The post Research spotlight on the "Seeing Crisis Governance like a City" project appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

A new published in the Journal of Canadian Studies by CITY Institute Director, Harris Ali, explores how populism, conspiracy theories and social media work together to weaken democratic systems in Canada and the United States.

Read more about the new study here.

The post New research published by CITY Institute Director exploring social media, populism, and threats to democracy in the Canadian context appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

New article by S. Harris Ali, Creighton Connolly, and Roger Keil

The post New research on pandemic risk in the urban outskirts appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

Pictured below from left to right are CITY members:  Roger Keil, Harris Ali, Sébastien Lambelet

(CITY participants not pictured: Ute Lehrer, Natalya Murzenko)

Congratulations to Roger and Sébastien who gave papers based on CITY-based research projects supported by CIFAR and SNRF funding on Future-Proofing Climate Boomtowns: Public Policies and Community Actions in Chicago, Toronto, Geneva and Zurich.Ìý

The post Great to see the CITY Institute represented at the International Sociological Association meetings that took place in Rabat, Morocco on 6-11 July 2025. appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

Please visit the link below to read some poignant accounts and reflections on the work of Prof Warren Magnusson (1947-2025) –  an important figure in urban thought who has had a tremendous influence on many at CITY (and beyond) throughout the years.

This collection of touching yet intellectually inspiring essays appearing in Urban Affairs Review has been edited by Roger Keil and Zack Taylor.

The post Warren Magnusson - Urban Political Scholar appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

Please click HERE to view the Spanish Version

Vertical Peripheries: Housing and Urban Transformation at the Metropolitan Margins

August 21–22, 2025 | Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

As part of the SSHRC-funded research collaboration between ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (Toronto, Canada) and CIDER at Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), titled , we invite advanced and early-career scholars to participate in a two-day workshop to be held at Universidad de los Andes on August 21–22, 2025. The workshop will explore the emerging phenomenon of vertical peripheries — high-rise housing developments located on the expanding edges of cities, particularly (but not exclusively) in the Global South. The workshop will also serve as a platform to shape contributions for a forthcoming special issue in a high-impact academic journal dedicated to this theme.

Over the past two decades, verticalization has become a central strategy in mass housing programs, promoted as a response to housing deficits, land scarcity, and informal urban expansion. This model has produced a distinctive urban form: large-scale, often state-subsidized towers situated on the urban fringe, frequently on former rural, informal, or environmentally sensitive land. These vertical peripheries reflect planning logics that promise formalization and modernity, while relocating low-income populations further from jobs, services, and political visibility.

Far from marginal in function, however, vertical peripheries are increasingly central to how cities manage land, housing demand, and the political project of inclusion. At the intersection of housing policy, modest public investment, and speculative development, they produce new geographies of density, ecological stress, and social fragmentation. Framed as instruments of integration, they often reproduce inequality—delivering legal tenure without access, infrastructure without services, and housing without full urban citizenship. Therefore, the effects of this type of housing on the well-being of the people who live there are mixed.

This workshop approaches vertical peripheries not simply as policy failures or technical challenges, but as contested terrains where planning, capital, and everyday life collide. These are sites of both state intervention and resident improvisation—zones of aspiration and struggle, where people redefine what it means to live, and live well, at the urban margins.

We welcome contributions that explore these tensions across diverse contexts and that critically examine vertical peripheries as sites of urban transformation, governance, and everyday negotiation. Selected papers will be considered for inclusion in the special issue Vertical Peripheries: Housing and Urban Transformation at the Metropolitan Margins, with an eye toward deepening comparative, theoretical, and empirical conversations around this global (yet uneven) phenomenon.

This workshop is especially intended for those in the final stages of their research projects. Participants are expected to submit a complete draft of their contribution by December 15, 2025.

Submission Guidelines

We welcome proposals for paper presentations:

• Abstracts (~400 words) should include a brief description of the research question, theoretical framework, background, methods, and relevance to the workshop theme.
• Please include a brief bio (maximum 100 words) along with your abstract.
• Submit proposals to Luisa Sotomayor at sotomay@yorku.ca and Clara Gómez clara24@yorku.ca by July 1, 2025.
• Limited travel support may be available for participants based in Latin America or the Caribbean.
  The workshop will be conducted in both English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation provided.
• Hotel accommodation and meals will be provided for all accepted participants during the workshop.

Organizers

Luisa Sotomayor, Associate Professor and Director, CITY Institute, ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ, Toronto.  sotomay@yorku.ca

Lina Brand Correa, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change,¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ, Toronto. brand@yorku.ca

Adriana Hurtado Tarazona, Associate Professor, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá a.hurtado10@uniandes.edu.co

Friederike Fleischer, Associate Professor,  Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá. f.fleischer406@uniandes.edu.co.

With the support of:

• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
• Interdisciplinary Centre for Development Studies – CIDER, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de los Andes
• The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ
• Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ

The post Call for Participation - WORKSHOP appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

Periferias Verticales:

Vivienda y Transformación Urbana en los Márgenes Metropolitanos

21 y 22 de agosto de 2025 | Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

En el marco del proyecto de investigación conjunto entre la Universidad de York (Toronto, Canadá) y el CIDER de la Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), titulado , invitamos a académicos/as y a estudiantes de posgrado a participar en un taller de dos días que se llevará a cabo en la Universidad de los Andes los días 21 y 22 de agosto de 2025. El taller tiene como objetivo analizar el fenómeno emergente de las periferias verticales: desarrollos habitacionales en altura ubicados en los bordes de expansión de las ciudades, especialmente (pero no exclusivamente) en contextos del Sur Global. Esta instancia de encuentro servirá como plataforma de discusión crítica para perfilar y consolidar aportes a un próximo número especial de una revista académica de alto impacto centrado en esta temática.

Durante las últimas dos décadas, la verticalización se ha convertido en una estrategia central de los programas de vivienda masiva, promovida como respuesta a los déficits habitacionales, la escasez de suelo y la expansión urbana informal. Este modelo ha dado lugar a una forma urbana distintiva: conjuntos de torres de vivienda a gran escala, algunas veces subsidiadas por el Estado, localizadas en la periferia urbana y construidas sobre suelos rurales o en lugares ambientalmente sensibles. Estas periferias verticales responden a lógicas de planeación que prometen formalización y modernización, al tiempo que reubican a poblaciones de bajos ingresos lejos del empleo, los servicios y la visibilidad política.

Sin embargo, lejos de ser espacios marginales en su función, las periferias verticales son cada vez más centrales en la manera en que las ciudades gestionan el suelo, la demanda habitacional y los proyectos políticos de inclusión. En la intersección entre política de vivienda, inversión pública limitada y desarrollo especulativo, estas periferias generan nuevas geografías de densidad, presión ecológica y fragmentación social. Aunque se presentan como instrumentos de integración, y como la manera más directa para reducir el déficit cuantitativo y generar acceso a la vivienda en propiedad privada, a menudo reproducen desigualdades: ofrecen tenencia legal sin acceso efectivo, infraestructura sin servicios adecuados, y vivienda sin ciudadanía urbana plena. Por lo tanto, los efectos de este tipo de vivienda en el bienestar de las personas que residen allí son mixtos.

Este taller aborda las periferias verticales no solo como fallas de política o desafíos técnicos, sino como territorios en disputa donde convergen la planificación, la especulación y el capital, y la vida cotidiana. Son espacios de intervención estatal y también de improvisación vecinal—zonas marcadas por aspiraciones y luchas, donde las personas redefinen lo que significa habitar, y habitar bien, en los márgenes de la ciudad.

Buscamos contribuciones que exploren estas tensiones en distintos contextos, y que examinen críticamente las periferias verticales como escenarios de transformación urbana, gobernanza y negociación cotidiana. Los trabajos seleccionados serán considerados para su inclusión en el número especial Periferias Verticales: Vivienda y Transformación Urbana en los Márgenes Metropolitanos, con el objetivo de enriquecer el debate comparado, teórico y empírico en torno a este fenómeno global pero desigual.

Este taller está especialmente dirigido a quienes se encuentran en las etapas finales de sus proyectos. Se espera que los participantes presenten un borrador completo de su contribución a más tardar el 15 de diciembre de 2025.

Instrucciones para la postulación

Se recibirán propuestas para presentaciones de ponencias académicas en español o inglés.

• Los °ù±ð²õú³¾±ð²Ô±ð²õ (máx. 400 palabras) deben incluir una breve descripción de la pregunta de investigación, el marco teórico, el contexto, la metodología y su relevancia para el tema del taller.
• Adjuntar una breve biografía (máximo 100 palabras).
• Enviar las propuestas a Luisa Sotomayor: sotomay@yorku.ca y Clara Gómez clara24@yorku.ca antes del 1 de julio de 2025
• Se podrá ofrecer apoyo para viajes a participantes seleccionados residentes en América Latina o el Caribe.
• El taller se desarrollará en español e inglés, con traducción simultánea disponible.
• La estadía en hotel (2 noches) y las comidas durante el evento estarán cubiertas para todas las personas aceptadas.

Organizan

Luisa Sotomayor, Profesora Asociada y Directora, Instituto de Ciudad, Universidad de York, Toronto  sotomay@yorku.ca

Lina Brand Correa, Profesora Asistente, Facultad de Cambio Ambiental y Urbano, Universidad de York, Toronto brand@yorku.ca

Adriana Hurtado Tarazona, Profesora Asociada, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá a.hurtado10@uniandes.edu.co

Friederike Fleischer, Profesora Asociada,  Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá f.fleischer406@uniandes.edu.co.

Con el apoyo de:
Consejo de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades de Canadá (SSHRC)
Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre Desarrollo – CIDER- Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de los Andes

The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ, ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ.

 Facultad de Cambio Urbano y Ambiental, ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ.

The post Convocatoria - TALLER appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) seeks to appoint a 12 month full-time post-doctoral fellow to work on a project at the intersection of climate change, housing, and poverty reduction in Ontario and British Columbia. This represents an exciting opportunity to work collaboratively between academic, private sector and civil society organizations with the goal of mobilizing research into housing equity and climate action.

We welcome applications from all qualified individuals, including individuals within the University's employment equity categories of women, persons with disabilities, members of visible minorities and aboriginal persons, individuals of diverse gender and sexual orientation and all groups protected by the Human Rights Code. ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ is committed to employment equity and diversity, and a positive and supportive environment.

The appointee will work with the Dean’s Office in the (EUC) and with the City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ, and under the supervision of Profs. Lina Brand Correa and Luisa Sotomayor as part of a team . With funding provided by the Gore Mutual Insurance Company of Cambridge, Ontario, this initiative also involves the Cooperators Insurance Company and , both based in Toronto.

The Climate & Equity Lab is now entering its second year. The postdoctoral fellow will play a key role in conducting qualitative research to explore how climate change affects housing experiences and opportunities for vulnerable groups in urban Canada. The responsibilities will include performing an environmental scan of innovative housing policies and energy efficiency initiatives across North America, assessing community challenges and assets, and conducting qualitative research through focus groups with homeowners and tenants in selected locations. The postdoc will collaborate with research participants and partners to develop potential scenarios, interventions, and prototypes in Ontario and British Columbia. Additionally, they will work closely with a team of graduate students from EUC, and are expected to be based in Toronto for the duration of the contract.

The successful candidate will have extensive knowledge of national and international academic debates relating to the differentiated impact of climate change on vulnerable communities, housing as a human right, and how climate change may affect the quality, adequacy, and availability of housing and other vital urban services and infrastructures for underserved groups in Canadian urban settings. They will also have experience in research design and relevant qualitative research skills. Awareness of energy poverty would be desirable but is not essential.

Initially for a period of 12 months, there is the possibility of the postdoctoral fellowship being extended for a longer period, subject to the availability of funds.  We are seeking a candidate to start as soon as possible. The salary for the position is $75,000 per annum including benefits. The position is open to both Canadian and non-Canadian applicants, but the appointment will depend upon an applicant securing the right to work in Canada. We invite qualified candidates to submit the following to Barb Wells (wellsb@yorku.ca) by November 30, 2024.

1.      A full CV;

2.      Statement of interest, describing relevant accomplishments and including an account of engagement with the themes to be addressed under the fellowship;

3.      The names and contact details of three referees. 

Only those applicants selected for consideration will be contacted.

About EUC

The Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ explicitly addresses the distinct, yet interconnected, challenges of environmental change and urbanization, with a focus on innovating diverse transitions to a sustainable and just future. EUC champions interdisciplinarity through curricular programs and scholarship; emphasizes field-based and experiential learning to enhance understanding of biophysical processes and social potentials; embraces global perspectives so that this understanding is derived from a broad range of places; and pursues community-engaged endeavours to generate meaningful scholarship and to train active citizens, innovators and leaders. As a community, we believe that making positive change requires bold and diverse thinking, ambitious action, and community engagement. We are inclusive and devoted to making the world a better place for all. EUC is currently home to five undergraduate programs leading to BES, BA, and BSc degrees, Master’s programs in Environmental Studies (MES and MES/JD), Geography (MA and MSc) and Planning (MES); and PhD programs in Environmental Studies and Geography; as well as a number of programs with certificates and diplomas. See 

About CITY

The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY) brings together urban scholars from diverse faculties to facilitate critical, interdisciplinary research. By fostering collaboration, CITY generates new knowledge and innovative approaches for comprehending and addressing the complexities of the urban arena. In addition to advancing academic excellence, the Institute plays a pivotal role in developing Canada’s next generation of municipal leaders and thinkers, with graduate students and post-doctoral fellows playing a central role in the life of the Institute. Beyond scholarship, CITY emphasizes the importance of practical engagement in urban planning, public policy, and community activism. See: /cityinstitute/

About ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ

¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ is a leading international teaching and research university, and a driving force for positive change. Empowered by a welcoming and diverse community with a uniquely global perspective, we are preparing our students for their long-term careers and personal success. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet and our future. See /

The post Postdoctoral fellowship in Climate Change, Housing and Equity in Urban Canada appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

The post CITY Institute AGM and Meet & Greet appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).

The post CITY Re-Chartering 2024 appeared first on The City Institute at ¿ì²¥ÊÓƵ (CITY).