The major cities in Canada have been classified in terms of their functional structure in order to develop an overview of the Canadian urban milieu. A quantitative method of classification based on census labour force statistics has been used to identify the functional character of cities. Examination of the traditional techniques of city functional classification reveals that a good quantitative classification scheme must recognize that all cities are multifunctional, that changing city size affects city functional structure, and that urban functions are essentially dichotomous by nature, having distinct "city-serving" and "city-forming" characteristics. Generally the city-serving activities are ubiquitous, being found in almost all centers and usually having relatively constant levels of importance in the functional profiles of cities. In contrast, the city-forming functions appear sporadically in cities and have a great range in the importance they exhibit in city functional structures. This importance ranges from complete domination to no representation at all for some functions. Because city-forming activity reveals the essential functional role of a city, only this activity should be utilized when classifying cities in terms of function. The "minimum requirement" technique as developed by Ullman and Dacey has been used to classify the cities because it conforms most closely to theoretical considerations, using only city-forming activity as the basis of classification and allowing for the effect of changing city size on city functional profiles. In addition it provides for a measure of city functional specialization. The position of an activity in a city's functional profile should be examined on two distinct planes: (1) its importance relative to that of other functions in the city's functional structure, and (2) its importance in the city's functional profile relative to its importance in the functional profiles of all other cities. The activity that occupies the highest position in a city's functional structure—determined by the proportion of city-forming employment in the different functions—is termed the city's "dominant" function. A function that engages an atypically high proportion of a city's city-forming employment in relation to the proportion usually found in the function in most cities is called a "distinctive" function. By determining the dominant and distinctive functions of cities and analyzing the distribution patterns of functional relative importance and city functional specialization, several observations can be made regarding the character of the functional performance of cities. The findings of the classification exercise generally coincide with observations based on qualitative data and with the results of other similar quantitative studies. Trade and manufacturing are the key urban functions both in the city-serving and city-forming profiles of cities. The propensity for functional specialization decreases with increasing city size. City size, however, is not the only factor governing city specialization. Elements such as the importance and kind of manufacturing in the functional profile, and the degree of "isolation" a city experiences are also important factors affecting city specialization. The distribution patterns of relative importance of the key urban activities are extremely uneven and indicate that a fundamental difference in functional performance exists between the cities of the densely populated St. Lawrence Lowlands and southern Ontario—the "heartland"--and the cities of the remaining parts of Canada—the "periphery". Heartland cities are generally more specialized and emphasize manufacturing to a greater degree than do the peripheral cities. The latter, except for a very few resource-oriented manufacturing centers, are quite diversified and are inclined to have an important involvement with functions associated with distance such as wholesale trade and transportation. The Canadian heartland and periphery are geographic realities. They differ in historical, economic, and to some degree, in cultural development. That their cities reflect these differences seems like a reasonable and to-be-expected conclusion. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

The overall purpose of this study is to provide new insights into the Canadian urban system through an analysis of economic activities at the inter-urban scale. The thesis analyses the urban system in terms of secondary economic activities, more specifically through the manufacturing industries of 41 Canadian cities with a population of over 30,000 in 1961. The investigation contains elements of traditional classification oriented and economic base approaches to urban economic functional analysis. However, an attempt is made to use the idea of the urban system to provide a more productive analysis of inter-urban economic functions. Correlation and bonding techniques are used to establish patterns of manufacturing similarities, upon which to base further analysis. Eight sets of cities and five distinct types of manufacturing profile are identified for the 41 cities, and the structural-spatial regularities identified are felt to be consistent with a center-periphery model of the general overall manufacturing structure of the Canadian economy. The analysis is pursued in terms of the investigation of the relationships between predominant manufacturing similarities of cities and various aspects of city size and location. Forward stepwise regression was considered an appropriate statistical procedure for the purpose of examining these relationships. From this analysis similarities between the cities are partially related to factors of size, relative location and historical evolution. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

That imaginative literature can be used as a data source for geographical analysis and understanding of place seems a reasonable (and potentially rewarding) possibility, based as it is on the premise that art mirrors life. However the mode in which — and the extent to which — literature reflects the society that engenders it must be addressed and clarified. Geographers seem principally to have engaged literature for its capacity to describe landscape and render a 'sense of place,' or to depict individual experience of place. These approaches assume that literature presents a simple, straightforward, representative reflection of either reality or the experience of reality and geographers have too often neglected to specify the links that they assume between literature and geography. Some writers have however suggested more comprehensive approaches to geographical analysis of literary data and others have theoretically addressed the issue of analogical representation in everyday life, in literature and in geographical analysis. This thesis is concerned with urban imagery as it can symbolically reveal the perceptual framework through which we order and understand our world. It examines the urban imagery that permeates our fiction and that can reveal how we fundamentally view our cities as living places. Thus the focus is on imagery and symbolic depiction, rather than realistic depiction of place or experience; with the application of an ordering framework rather than intuitive interpretation of literary data; with an explicit mode of analysis that defines the links it posits between art and society. It is fundamentally concerned with the perception of urban place as it is imaginatively rendered. A preliminary survey of Canadian urban novels of the past two decades revealed two points that became the nexus of this analysis. First, the image of the city is a remarkably consistent one — and it is remarkable as well for its negative emphasis. The city is overwhelmingly characterized as a menacing presence, a landscape defined by incoherence and disorder, provoking a sense of unease and vulnerability. Second, it became apparent that a framework would be necessary to organize and systematize the urban imagery, to reveal pattern in the amorphous mass of data, and to achieve more than a mere listing or cataloging of images. Further, a definition of the relationship between art and its social context must precede and guide any probing of literature for data. The concept of garrison mentality, borrowed from Northrop Frye and the field of literary criticism, provided the basis from which to develop such a framework. The linked themes of garrison and wilderness proved a comprehensive schema within which to analyze image and reaction in the urban novels. The image of city as wilderness that pervades these works is summarized and is illustrated by examples from urban anthologies; the three types of garrison provoked by this threatening fictive environment are detailed with reference to representative novels. The literary material, organized in this way, strongly suggests themes current in the work of various urban and social theorists. Such parallels serve to substantiate the hypothesis that image and reaction in fiction correlate closely with perception and behaviour in the everyday world. This suggests that literary symbolism is a valid way to explore our elemental modes of perception and frames of reference. It also raises further questions of the role of the interpreter — creative writer or social scientist— in promulgating a perspective, and of why a particular society gives rise to a particular vision of itself. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Research on house prices and housing markets has traditionally been concerned with the modelling of house price determinants using hedonic regression equations and other methods of data interpretation. While this research has unveiled some useful insights into the relationships between housing supply, housing demand, and selling price, more recent work has focused on the "specialness" of housing as a commodity and the subsequent dismissal of regression techniques that only serve to throw us into a "statistical soup". Recent research is different in two key respects. First, forces other than macro-level variables (eg. interest rates and the availability of finance) and micro-level variables (household income, size, proximity to work) are believed to contribute to the fluctuations in housing prices over time and through space: specifically, more subjective evaluations of locational amenity, identity construction, and community are now considered in the valorisation of housing. Furthermore, newer research also understands that exogenous influences (eg. immigration, foreign investment) now play a key role in the determination of residential value. This research on residential real estate markets in Canada engages in discussions revolving around the latter of the two approaches using both qualitative and quantitative methods. At the inter-urban scale, analysis of house price movements in Canada's largest cities shows the divergence of Toronto and Vancouver from other CMAs, a trend that coincides with the increasing globalisation of both cities over the last 15 years. Further, intra-urban analyses of both Toronto and Vancouver demonstrate differential impacts of globalisation and economic restructuring within each city with particular neighbourhoods being placed on more of a "global" real estate market (eg. gentrified neighbourhoods, residential areas experiencing offshore investment, and areas of settlement for wealthy immigrants). The particular impacts of globalisation are, however, very different in each city and is dependant upon the nature of the global flows that converge there. Moreover, these results are not politically mute; considerable effort has been expended in Vancouver at least to obscure the actual effects of internationalisation on the regional housing market.

Research on house prices and housing markets has traditionally been concerned with the modelling of house price determinants using hedonic regression equations and other methods of data interpretation. While this research has unveiled some useful insights into the relationships between housing supply, housing demand, and selling price, more recent work has focused on the "specialness" of housing as a commodity and the subsequent dismissal of regression techniques that only serve to throw us into a "statistical soup". Recent research is different in two key respects. First, forces other than macro-level variables (eg. interest rates and the availability of finance) and micro-level variables (household income, size, proximity to work) are believed to contribute to the fluctuations in housing prices over time and through space: specifically, more subjective evaluations of locational amenity, identity construction, and community are now considered in the valorisation of housing. Furthermore, newer research also understands that exogenous influences (eg. immigration, foreign investment) now play a key role in the determination of residential value. This research on residential real estate markets in Canada engages in discussions revolving around the latter of the two approaches using both qualitative and quantitative methods. At the inter-urban scale, analysis of house price movements in Canada's largest cities shows the divergence of Toronto and Vancouver from other CMAs, a trend that coincides with the increasing globalisation of both cities over the last 15 years. Further, intra-urban analyses of both Toronto and Vancouver demonstrate differential impacts of globalisation and economic restructuring within each city with particular neighbourhoods being placed on more of a "global" real estate market (eg. gentrified neighbourhoods, residential areas experiencing offshore investment, and areas of settlement for wealthy immigrants). The particular impacts of globalisation are, however, very different in each city and is dependant upon the nature of the global flows that converge there. Moreover, these results are not politically mute; considerable effort has been expended in Vancouver at least to obscure the actual effects of internationalisation on the regional housing market. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate