MSc Rafał Gajewski took part in the 2018 Urban Affairs Association Annual Conference which was held in Toronto between 4^th and 7^th of April. Its theme was: „Shaping Justice and Sustainability Within and Beyond the City’s Edge:Contestation and Collaboration in Urbanizing Regions”.

Participation in the conference was a great opportunity to get insight into social, economic and political phenomena that take place within the metropolitan area of ​​Toronto and the city itself, as well as to hear about new trends in urban and regional studies. The program of the event included several dozen thematic sessions grouped into thematic blocks concerning e.g. public management, suburbanization, social participation or housing. It was also possible to take part in study visits in various parts of the city to follow the processes of revitalization of post-industrial areas or suburbanization.

MSc Rafał Gajewski took part in the thematic session “Metropolitan Planning, Cooperation and Reform” that was held the third day of the conference. The subject of his presentation was “A Bottom-up Approach Towards Metropolitan Integration – Reasons for Cooperation. A Case Study of the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot Metropolitan Area”. During the following week, member of our staff held meetings at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo with scientists who deal with the issues of regional planning and cooperation between local governments within metropolitan areas. He also spoke to representatives of the Town of Milton and the Region of Peel that lie in Greater Toronto Area.

Greater Toronto Area is currently about 7 million inhabitants but has been growing rapidly by about 100 000 inhabitants per year.  Therefore, there seems to be a great amount of challenges ahead of public authorities of the Province of Ontario as well municipalities within its borders. Apparently, those conditionings are very different from Polish or even European point of view. Nevertheless, when it comes to shaping development policies and governance structures, experiences from overseas can be truly inspiring for us.

Program of the Conference
The description of the thematic session