Via tobias c. van Veen:
Is there a shared experience of city life, a set of encounters, tensions and issues confronting cities, inducing them, at some level, to be engaged in common problems? Or, on the other hand, are cities distinct by virtue of their geographical, economic, cultural and social forces which have moulded them? This project proposes detailed studies of urban experience in Montreal, Toronto, Berlin and Dublin, to help us to understand how cities struggle to define and sustain their individuality, amidst all those forces which threaten to render them indistinct. This project brings together some of Canada’s leading scholars of cultural life. It will create an ongoing structure for exchange and collaboration between universities, cultural institutions and research centres in Toronto and Montreal. At the same time, the project will allow Canadian scholars to collaborate with colleagues, universities, and research centres in Berlin and Dublin.