Urban Studies
Centre for Urban and Community Studies
http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/
The Center for Urban and Community Studies was established on the first of May in 1964 by the School of Graduate Studies as a research unit. Jacob Spelt and Donald Kerr from the Department of Geography, along with S.D. Clark from the Department of Political Economy, Oswald Hall of Sociology, James Milner of Law, and Albert Rose of Social Work used to meet from time to time to discuss their research progress and read their papers to each other. All their concerns focused on metro Toronto and the urban related issues of the federal and the provincial government. Therefore, they decided to make a research center to focus on urban affairs and formed a committee to promote the idea. On the 20th of November of 1963, in a meeting with University President Claude T. Bissell, the committee successfully presented the case and finally established it in 1964.
Stefan Dupré became the director of the Center for Community and Urban Studies in 1966. During the initial stages of the center, it was a one-person operation in one room but it grew over the years. The center was not limited to urban related studies as it also focused on other related community studies. Around 20 professors worked for the center by 1970 and around 80 faculty members maintained regular contact with the center. Over the next few years the center was involved in various crucial projects that were both local and international. The Child of the City program was set up in 1976 as the Hospital for sick children foundation was researching on the effects of social, environmental and neighborhood change on urban children. Similarly, in 1977 the center established the global secretariat of the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA) under Barry Wellman.
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