Search

While a tremendous amount of research has focused on the relationships between Aboriginal peoples and the natural environment, almost no attention has been paid to the importance of nature for Aboriginal people living in cities. Our exploratory research looks at the importance of nature for Aboriginal people living in Ottawa. Preliminary findings indicate that nature does play a very important role in their lives, and that reciprocal relationships with nature are practiced in a variety of ways. In addition, despite the fact that the people we spoke with tend to see the city as an artificial, human-constructed environment, various aspects of nature can be experienced in the city, something that blurs the conceptual dichotomy between these two spheres. Rather than attempting to provide definitive answers, we highlight the need for further research on the varied connections between Aboriginal people and nature in Canada's cities. La nature, les villes, les peuples : des perspectives autochtones sous étude Si de nombreux travaux de recherche s'intéressent aux relations que les peuples autochtones nouent avec l'environnement naturel, peu d'attention a été accordée jusqu'à maintenant à l'importance que revêt la nature pour les Autochtones vivant dans les villes. Cette recherche exploratoire analyse l'importance que revêt la nature pour les Autochtones vivant à Ottawa. Les résultats préliminaires montrent, d'une part, combien la nature joue en effet un rôle très important dans leur vie et, d'autre part, qu'ils entretiennent de diverses manières des relations réciproques avec la nature. Qui plus est, bien que les personnes avec qui nous nous sommes entretenus soient plutôt enclines à concevoir la ville comme un environnement artificiel construit par l'humain, la ville permet néanmoins d'explorer les diverses facettes de la nature. Il en ressort que la dichotomie conceptuelle entre ces deux milieux tend à s'estomper. Au lieu d'établir des conclusions, nous faisons valoir l'importance de poursuivre des recherches sur les liens diversifiés que les peuples autochtones tissent avec la nature dans les villes du Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question we address in this article concerns the possible existence of specifically geographic processes that influence the propensity of Québec City knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms to innovate. In other words, after controlling for factors of innovation that are internal to the firm, does their neighbourhood-level environment within the Quebec census metropolitan area partly determine their propensity to innovate? More specifically, this study looks at whether proximity to certain types of economic activity -measured by their employment levels- is connected with innovation. We show that proximity effects do exist, but that these differ according to the type of innovation considered and according to the type of activity to which proximity is measured. Our results indicate that clusters including KIBS, manufacturing, and technical KIBS seem to benefit innovation. Service establishments are, however, more innovative when they are close to the centre of Quebec City, and remote from professional services and government. The nature of these results differs somewhat from those for Montreal-in particular there is no tendency for innovation to increase with the distance to the central business district (CBD). This suggests that the connection between intra-metropolitan location and KIBS innovation is dependent on specific metropolitan context, and does not therefore reflect easily generalisable processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian cities are at a crossroads. The neoliberalization of governance at multiple scales, inadequate re-investment in urban infrastructure, increasing reliance on continental and international trade, and the restructuring of the space economy have combined to weaken Canada's cities just as the global economic system is undergoing transformation. Canadian urban geographic scholarship has much to offer under current conditions, and is already making significant contributions in key areas. In particular, research on what might be called the contours and impacts of urban restructuring and the neoliberal city, immigration and cities of difference, and urban environmental justice show much promise and are likely to define the core of Canadian urban geography into the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]