Municipal planning and the repositioning of the Canadian city amidst the private governance of telecommunication networks: A study of four Canadian cities, 1985--2000 (New Brunswick, Ontario, Saskatchewan, British Columbia)

This research project examines the manner in which, amidst myths of technological imperative, the medium-size Canadian city has assumed a privatized system of governance and planning. Four cities—Saint John NB, London ON, Saskatoon SK and Kelowna BC—are used to analyze how they, as physical and social institutions, have been part of an ongoing convergence of media holdings between 1985 and 2000. Central to this analysis are the public planning processes, and their transfer to private interests under the auspices of efficiency, accountability and the interests of the public good. The increased salience of telecommunication infrastructures over the period of analysis has contributed to a facilitated takeover of the city by private interests. The public has been alienated from meaningful, democratic participation in social planning in their cities as a market-oriented nature of neo-liberal governance at the municipal level of public administration and management has become further entrenched.