Visions of Vancouver: Ideology, Democracy, and the Future of Urban Development

Urban landscapes cannot be understood solely by material or symbolic criteria, but only by a close examination of their various interlinkages. The production of ideological meanings concerning a city's identity, development, and future trajectory are both constitutive and reflective of material processes and desires. In this paper, I examine the economic and political context in which a vision of one city's future identity was promoted. I argue that a 1990 newspaper series concerning the future of Vancouver, British Columbia, can be read as an important thread within a broader tapestry of hegemonic formation—a formation profoundly interlinked with the entrenchment of a neo-liberal agenda in Canada. I also suggest that this effort to shape a hegemonic vision of the city's future draws on and helps to transform broader, common-sense understandings of Canadian democracy and of the role of citizens within a liberal welfare state.