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Research Interests:

Urban Political Geography and The Politics of Planning

Urban Space, Planning, Automobility, and Political Values

Globalization, Development, and Planning for Urban Change

Neighbourhood Form and Electoral Geography

Urban Social Polarization and Inequality

Urban Policy, Economic Restructuring, Household Debt, and Neighbourhood Inequality

Social Exclusion, Immigration and Segregation

Gated Communities

Urban Social Justice

Urban and Suburban Development

Regional / Metropolitan Planning and Governance

Urban and Suburban Planning, Transportation, Form

Geography of Housing and Homelessness, Social Housing

Gentrification, Social Mix, and Urban Revitalization

Recent Publications:

Walks, R. Alan (2011) “Economic Restructuring and Trajectories of Socio-Spatial Polarization in the Twenty-First Century Canadian City”, in Bourne, L.S., Hutton, T., Shearmur, R. and Simmons, J. (Eds.) Canadian Urban Regions: Trajectories of Growth and Change. 125-159

August, M. and Walks, R. Alan (2011) “From Social Mix to Political Marginalisation? The Redevelopment of Toronto's Public Housing and the Dilution of Tenant Organizational Power”, in Bridge, G., Butler, T., and Lees, L. (Eds.) Mixed Communities: Gentrification by Stealth:?. London: Policy Press. 273 - 297

Walks, R. Alan (2010) “Bailing out the Wealthy: Responses to the Financial Crisis, Ponzi Neoliberalism, and the City”. Human Geography. 3 (3): 54-84

Walks, R. Alan (2010) “Electoral Behaviour Behind the Gates: Partisanship and Political Participation among Canadian Gated Community Residents”. Area. 42 (1): 7-24

Walks, R. Alan (2010) “New Divisions: Social Polarization and Neighbourhood Inequality in the Canadian City”, in Bunting, T.E., Filion, P. and Walker, R. (Eds.), Canadian Cities in Transition: New Directions in the Twenty-First Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 170-190

Walks, R. Alan (2009) “The Urban in Fragile, Uncertain, Neoliberal Times: Towards New Geographies of Social Justice?”. Canadian Geographer. 53 (3): 345-356

Walks, R. Alan and August, M. (2008) “The Factors Inhibiting Gentrification in Areas with Little Non-market Housing: Policy Lessons from the Toronto Experience”. Urban Studies. 45 (12): 2594-2625

Walks, R. Alan and Maaranen, R. (2008) “Gentrification, Social Mix, and Social Polarization: Testing the Linkages in Large Canadian Cities”. Urban Geography. 29 (4): 293-326

Walks, R. Alan and Maaranen, R. (2008) The Timing, Patterning and Forms of Gentrification and Neighbourhood Upgrading in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver 1961 to 2001. Toronto: University of Toronto Cities Centre Research Paper 211

Walks, R. Alan (2008) “Urban Form, Everyday Life, and Ideology: Support for Privatization in Three Toronto Neighbourhoods”. Environment and Planning A. 40 (2): 258—282

Walks, R. Alan (2007) “The Boundaries of Suburban Discontent? Urban Definitions and Neighbourhood Political Effects”. Canadian Geographer. 51 (2): 160—185

Walks, R. Alan (2007) “From Suburbanization to Super-Regions: The Political Challenge Facing Canadian Metropolitan Areas and Their Central Cities”. Plan Canada 47 (3): 19—24

Walks, R. Alan (2006) “Aestheticization and the Cultural Contradictions of Neoliberal (sub)Urbanism”. Cultural Geographies. 13 (3): 466—475

Walks, R. Alan (2006) “The Causes of City-Suburban Political Polarization? A Canadian Case Study”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 96 (2): 390—414

Walks, R. Alan and Bourne, L.S. (2006) “Ghetto’s in Canada’s Cities? Racial Segregation, Ethnic Enclaves and Poverty Concentration in Canadian Urban Areas. Canadian Geographer. 50 (3): 273—297.

Walks, R. Alan (2006) “Homelessness, Housing Affordability and the New Poverty”, in Bunting, T.E. and Filion, P. (Eds.) Canadian Cities in Transition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 419—437.

Walks, R. Alan (2005) “City-Suburban Electoral Polarization in Great Britain, 1950 to 2001”. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 30 (4): 500—517

Walks, R. Alan (2005) “The City-Suburban Cleavage in Canadian Federal Politics”. Canadian Journal of Political Science. 38 (2): 383—413.

Walks, R. Alan. (2004) “Place of Residence, Party Preferences, and Political Attitudes in Canadian Cities and Suburbs”. Journal of Urban Affairs. 26 (3): 269 – 295.

Walks, R. Alan. (2004) “Suburbanization, the Vote, and Changes in Federal and Provincial Political Representation and Influence between Inner Cities and Suburbs in Large Canadian Urban Regions, 1945 to 1999”. Urban Affairs Review. 39 (4): 411 – 440.

Bunting, T., Walks, R. Alan, and Filion, P. (2004). “The Uneven Geography of Housing Affordability Stress in Canadian Metropolitan Areas”. Housing Studies. 19 (3): 361-393.

Bunting, T. E., P. Filion, and Walks, R. Alan (2002) Households at Risk of Homelessness: Distributional Patterns within Eleven Canadian Metropolitan Regions. Report prepared for the National Secretariat on Homelessness, Government of Canada. (249 pages)

Walks, R. Alan. (2001) “The Social Ecology of the Post-Fordist/ Global City? Economic Restructuring and Socio-Spatial Polarisation in the Toronto Urban Region”. Urban Studies. 38 (3): 407 - 447.