Rob Shields D.Phil.
Henry Marshall Tory Endowed Research Chair and Professor of Sociology, City-Region
Studies Centre, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta, Edmonton Canada.
Contact: rshields (one word) -at- ualberta -dot- ca
The Henry Marshall Tory Chair is named for the first President of the University 1908-1929, first President of the National Research Council of Canada 1928-1935, and first President of Carleton College 1942-1947, now Carleton University, where I also studied and taught.
Calendar of talks and engagements.
Recent Talks
Cultural Topology. English and Mandarin. Phoenix Press Talk, Nanjing Oct. 2016.
Spaces of Concern, Public Space and Scientific Insight at the nanoscale, topologies of public space and urban culture. 2014 City of Vienna Visiting Professor, SKuOR Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, Technische Universität Wien, Vienna.
Next Course: University of Alberta: Material and Virtual Culture SOC 634-B1 Mondays 2-4:50pm Tory B100. Jan-Apr 2018. Draft Syllabus
Current Topics in Community, Urban and Regional Planning EXT 497/597 Students interested in gaining credit for urban and regional studies placements, conference- and community-related activities, community service and projects that treat the city as their classroom should contact me and inquire with their programs about the possibility of taking EXT 497/597 Current Topics in Community, Urban and Regional Planning (fi 6) (any term, 0-2s-1).
Reading Courses on cultural topology and social spatialisation are available on request and also as distance courses. SOC634 on theory and the virtual and material culture offered Jan-Apr 2018 at Univ. of Alberta
Space and Culture Research and Reading Group - every 2nd or 3rd Friday 1:30pm Sept-May Tory 4-10. Contact me for further information or subscribe to email list by sending an email to spaceandculturereading@mailman.srv.ualberta.ca with subscribe in the header.
Sample of Recent Work: see Researchgate.net and Scribd.com for other works. Complete list in cv.
In Press 'Improvising Everyday Spaces of Urban Emancipation.' S. Knierbein, T. Viderman (eds.) Designing Public Spaces of Emancipation. London: Routledge.
In Press 'Edmonton, Amiskwacy: Suburbs for Settlers' with D. Gillespie and K. Moran. North American Suburbs. J. Nijman (ed.) Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Expanding the borders of The Sociological Imagination: Spatial difference and social inequality. Current Sociology 65:4 2017. pp.533-52.
Knowing Space. Space: Critical Concepts in Geography. P. Merriman (ed.) New York: Routledge 2016.
Governing Emergent Technologies Ethnographies of Neoliberalism. M. Brady (ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2016. pp.105-130.
Re-spatializing the City as the City-Region? City-Regions in Prospect: Place meets PracticeCo-Editor with Kevin Jones and Alex Lord. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2015. pp.53-72.
SMART Cities Timeline with I. Fafarek. CRSC University of Alberta Faculty of Extension 2014.
The Aesthetics of Nation. Negotiations in a Vacant Lot, E. Morton et al (eds.). McGill-Queen's University Press 2014.
Compte rendu thématique: L'université et la ville' Espaces et Sociétés: L'université : retour en ville? 159. 2014.
Compte rendu 'Foissart: La Chine et ses migrants: La conqète d'une citoyenneté' Espaces et Sociétés 160. 2014.
An Actantial Diagram of Nanotechnology in Edmonton with Y-C Ghimn. Semiotica Paper presented at the Semiotic Society of America (Seattle, October 2-3 2014) 2015.
The Virtuality of Urban Culture: Blanks, Dark Moments and Blind Fields. Cartographies of Place, M. Darroch and J. Marchessault (eds.), Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. pp.67-84. 2013.
Ongoing work: Nanotechnology, community and innovation ecologies; New Spaces of Concern at nano and global scales; Nano-objects; Urban Vitures; City Regions in Prospect; Cities and Universities; Strip-Appeal for Communities; Black Vaticans - Spatialisations of alternative cultural capitals; Hurricane cities of the Caribbean; Flow Collected Papers; Visualicities etc.
Overview of my past work in Work of Arts (2005).
Podcasts of my recent talks and video interviews of past speakers including Distinguished Visiting Scholars - Ann Game, Proboscis, Thomas Gieryn, Ken Hillis. See also CRSC link above for Regional Planning Speakers Series talks by Jennifer Keesmat, Clement Greenberg, Doug Olson, David Wolfe, Candace Vanin, Clement Demers, Ellen Dunham Jones, Jarret Walker, Michael Ronkin, Jan Gehl, Peter Clewes, Peter Newman, Anthony King, Jaime Lerner, Len Rodrigues, Randall Crane, Raymond Côté, John Loxley and many others.
Salvador soundscape; Mashup by M. Vallee .mp3
Blois - les saisons video mashup: Download HD .mov or SD .mp4
Research Keywords: Strip-malls and suburban retail. Building Tomorrow: Innovation in construction and engineering, The Virtual suburbanism, architecture, urban culture, cultural theory, topology, Lifestyle Shopping: The Subject of Consumption, retail environments, Places on the Margin, Spatial Questions - social spatializations and cultural topologies, Ecologies of Affect, Cultures of Internet and cyberspace, organizational regulatory cultures, the North and sovereignty, arctic urbanization, the work of Henri Lefebvre, cultures, What is a City? New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Social Spaces: Tourism, Ethics.
Urban Blogs: City-Lab (was The Atlantic-Cities); Planetizen; Lincoln Institute of Land Polic; Urban and other pechakucha presentations; USGS Historical Topographical Map Explorer; Citscope...
Architectural and Urban Virtual Lectures of related interest: Berlage Centre for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design lectures. SCI-Arc Southern California Institute of Architecture lectures. AA School, London, lectures.
Edmonton looking across the North Saskatchewan River from University of Alberta. Click on the images to display larger view (800x600 pixels). Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and Campbell Scientific have installed cameras on the University of Alberta's H.M. Tory Building. The cameras record and store visual weather and river conditions every 15 minutes. Images are archived at EAS Digital Imaging Facility. Archived image dimensions are 1920x1080 pixels at 72dpi.
