Betsy Donald

The Urban Creative-Food Economy: Producing Food for the Urban Elite or Social Inclusion Opportunity?

The food industry has always been a major generator of economic activity in the Greater Toronto Area. However, recently the innovative and creative elements of the industry have changed. Since the mid-1990s, the fastest growing segment within the industry has been small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The specialty, ethnic, and organic SMEs (hereinafter referred to as the ‘creative-food’ industry) appear to be particularly innovative as they respond to consumer demand for local, fresh, ethnic, and fusion cuisine. On the basis of sixty-five interviews with food producers, processors, restaurateurs, food media, non-government organizations, government, and private sector agencies, it is suggested that this creative-food sector is thriving despite existing public policies that bias toward large-scale, industrialized agri-food firms in the region. As such, a disconnect currently exists between, on the one hand, the traditional agrifood paradigm that the government regulatory environment is promoting and, on the other hand, the locally consumer-driven food cluster that is emerging. Public policies of multiculturalism and education have done more to facilitate the unprecedented growth of this creative subcomponent of the food sector than have explicit public food-policy initiatives. However, there is still room for policy initiatives that advance the development of this dynamic sector, especially in the area of supportive infrastructure, access to health-based ethnically appropriate food, food education, and fair labour standards. Contrary to a widely held view, the creative-food industry is not just about promoting exclusive foods for the pleasure of urban elite. Rather, it offers an opportunity for a more socially inclusive and sustainable urban development model. The findings also have implications for multilevel governance in cluster formation and policy, future research on food, as well as for theories on innovation, urban creativity, and governance.

A New Rubric for ‘Creative City’ Potential in Canada’s Smaller Cities

In Canada and elsewhere, Richard Florida’s ‘creative capital’ model has gained considerable influence over urban policy and development strategies. The model posits that most cities can be economically successful if they become diverse, high-tech and amenity-rich. The way that creative capital is theorised, quantified and applied, however, tends to marginalise smaller Canadian cities. We use recent census data and qualitative evidence from a study on the social dynamics of economic performance in Kingston, Ontario, to argue that a new rubric based on livability and sustainability provides a more optimistic and empowering picture of creative potential in smaller Canadian cities. Critiques of creative capital thus far have tended to discredit the model entirely, leaving large cities as winners by default in an irrational capitalist system and small cities with few options. Instead, the goal of this paper is to change fundamentally the parameters of the creativity debate for smaller cities by offering new ways to conceptualise and operationalise development in the ‘new economy’.

A Tale of Three Tomatoes: The New Food Economy in Toronto, Canada

Abstract Drawing upon research from a cluster and innovation systems perspective, we counter the argument that the food industry is a mature and dying industry and point to evidence of a vibrant, dynamic food sector that has made a substantial contribution to regional growth. Since the mid-1990s, the most dynamic component of the Toronto urban food economy has been the small- and medium-sized enterprises, comprised mainly of specialty, local, ethnic, and organic food-processing firms that are thriving in response to consumers’ demands for high-quality, local, fresh ethnic and fusion cuisine. However, these newer firms face challenges, and our results raise the question about how a more stimulating innovative milieu can be created for them. In answer to this question, we suggest multiscaled approaches to cluster formation and policy and discuss the implications of our research for theories of innovation systems, firms, city creativity, and governance. We situate this “new food economy” within the core literature of economic geography, seeking to relocate the “agrifood” literature away from a traditional rural setting to a dynamic city-region context, underscoring the essential role of the consumption side of agrifood chains. Moreover, we use the food sector as a lens through which to argue that mature sectors and “ordinary” activities in a city are every bit as important to the long-term health, viability, and sustainability of a city-region economy.

The Permeable City: Toronto's Spatial Shift at the Turn of the Millennium

This article presents an analysis of the relationship between urban governance restructuring, and global, national, and local action through a case study of the Toronto city-region. The Toronto city-region recently underwent a massive reorganization of its governance structures, functions, and jurisdictional boundaries. This restructuring raises questions about why these changes occurred at this particular juncture in the regions history. Why did the city that had always been known in the academic and political discourse as the “city that works” stop “working”? What global and national forces might have accounted for such a radical restructuring? And what did local action contribute? These questions are explored in both historical and contemporary contexts by drawing on insights from regulation theory, urban regime theory, and an analysis of Canadas changing fiscal federalism. This approach informs the role that institutions — regardless of their origin or territorial scope — play in sustaining a local accumulation system, and how this “local” accumulation grounds a national regulatory mode and regime of accumulation. The approach also explores the relationship between regime and regulation theories in the context of policy formation and institution building. The study concludes that the current policy set is incapable of resolving the regions crisis tendencies. Notwithstanding external forces, the current policy set is not inevitable. Globalization does not predetermine all spatial-economic outcomes.

The politics of local economic development in Canada's city-regions: New dependencies, new deals, and a new politics of scale

Abstract This paper examines the current round of ‘scale politics’ between Canadas largest global cities and the existing national policy architecture and intergovernmental context. Economic actors in Canadas largest city-regions feel hamstrung by the existing institutional arrangements which remain ill-suited to the changing urban realities and global spatial flows. While the long-standing national regime is now under challenge, the extent to which it can be changed is also under question as the federal government seems reluctant to implement any explicit urban-based policies that could be seen further to accentuate regional (especially urban–rural) difference in Canada. The main thrust of this paper, then, is to provide an explanation for the limits of institutional convergence in the politics of local economic development in Canada. This is not to say that there is not evidence of convergence in terms of economic strategies and institutional responses, only that Canadas particular round of ‘scale politics’ must be situated in the history of Canadas particular national economic regime, including the origins of local economic development, state forms and history of local dependencies.

Contested Notions of Quality in a Buyer-Driven Commodity Cluster: The Case of Food and Wine in Canada

In this paper, I examine how different notions of “quality” are used to shape the direction of a food and wine cluster. In particular, I explore the powerful role of the retailer–distributor in shaping that direction. The retailer–distributor can be either public or private, but ultimately plays a significant role in shaping the food and wine supply chain. “Alternative” quality-claiming retail and distribution venues have exploded in numbers recently (i.e. farmers markets, internet sellers, community supportive agriculture and direct tourist-inspired farm-gate sales). However, like Goodman (2004, Rural Europe redux? Reflections on alternative agro-food networks and paradigm change, Sociologia Ruralis, 44(1), pp. 3–16), I argue for a more modest estimation of their “paradigmatic potential” to shape the future “quality” direction of food and wine clusters in Canada—especially as the larger food and wine retail-distributors continue to dominate the food and wine supply system. That said, given the political and social tensions surrounding the public regulation of food, there is still room for the growth of more localized “quality”-based agro-food-wine clusters if policymakers deem them important to grow.

The double crisis: in what sense a regional problem?

ABSTRACT We are now facing Andrew Sayer’s ‘diabolical double crisis’, which encompasses both a deep financial crisis and an environmental one. The scale, scope and nature of this double crisis is downplayed in the regional studies literature, much of which still focuses on innovative growth models often divorced from broader social and ecological contexts. To help solve both crises we call for regional studies to explore new models that allow a focus to be made on the most important issues of our time. We illustrate this by focusing on the contradictions in the waste produced by contemporary regional economies: waste of abundance, labour and resources.