Special Issue of the Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine Downtowns. Past and Present

The Canadian bilingual journal the Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine invites proposals for papers to be published in a special issue devoted to exploring the changing nature of downtowns or city centres, from the late 19th century to the contemporary period, in Canada and elsewhere.

In the last two decades, analysts of urban change have focussed on the evolution of metropolitan areas characterized by the emergence of new centres of production and consumption. Edge cities, edgeless cities, exurbs, boomburbs, development corridors and nodes represent a new phase in the history of the city. As new office buildings have been rising up in suburban downtowns or edge cities, former city centers have undergone major shifts in their form and function. Although most Canadian cities maintained thriving downtowns throughout the 20th century, retail and office decentralisation has had an effect on the economic health of city centres. What factors attracted businesses and people to downtowns in the first place? How did they go from being the city’s principal magnet to one business district among many others? What urban revitalization efforts have been carried out and what has been their outcomes?

Since the middle of the 1990s, North American urban scholars have looked at the ways in which downtown areas have recovered after years of decline and neglect. Building on evidence regarding population growth and major investments in the entertainment and cultural sectors, urban scholars have shown that downtowns have rebounded. Moreover, even though many observers of the urban scene have predicted their extinction due to the increased use of communication technologies, in the last decade or so, architectural icons of downtowns and city centers such as skyscrapers or tall buildings have reappeared in the urban landscape.

This special issue of the Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine will focus on (but is not limited to) the following areas of interest:

-architecture and urban form (skyscrapers, tall buildings, mega-blocks, megastructures, high-status buildings housing civic institutions or cultural institutions such as libraries, museums, or performing arts centres)
-urban planning schemes aimed at beautifying, renewing or revitalizing downtowns
-processes of social and physical transformation such as de-gentrification, gentrification and reconstruction
-downtown users, businesses and property owners
-downtown dwellers and specific housing types such as single occupancy rooms, residential hotels and high rise apartment buildings
-downtown’s uneasy areas: skid row, red light district, areas surrounding train stations, etc.

While the Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine normally publishes articles that take a historical approach, interdisciplinary approaches to the study of downtowns are encouraged for this issue. Relevant proposals from the fields of geography, sociology, urban planning, or architectural history are welcome.

Calendar

March 31st 2008: deadline for submitting an abstract (250-300 words)
April 15th 2008: notification to authors on the success of their abstract submission
August 31st 2008: deadline for submitting the full paper ready for the peer review process

Papers may have between 6,000 to 10,000 words. Please follow the Review’s guidelines available at:
http://www.urbanhistoryreview.ca/urbanenglish.html Please send proposals to:

Claire Poitras
Special Issue Editor
claire.poitras@ucs.inrs.ca

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