Researcher Profile - Q & A

Meric Gertler is the recently appointed dean of the University of Toronto’s largest academic division, the Faculty of Arts & Science. He is co-director of the SSHRC-funded program on globalization and regional innovation systems at the Munk Centre for International Studies. As an economic geographer, Gertler examines why creative and innovative industries and individuals in specific fields are drawn to certain city-regions more than others.

When did you first become interested in studying the economics of city regions?

I’ve had a very long-standing interest in cities that stems back to childhood. You could say it runs in my blood. My father was a professional city planner for the first half of his working life, before he became the founding director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Waterloo. It was a topic that always came up at the dinner table and our house was always filled with interesting members of the planning community.

At a relatively early age, I was amazed at the mobility a kid can have in a city like Toronto that has a great transit system and a level of density that makes things easy to reach. These were all things I took for granted until we moved to a much smaller city.

What have you learned through your research?

Along with my collaborator, David Wolfe, and the help of 25 other researchers from across the country, we’ve found that the way we physically build cities and the extent to which we invest in infrastructure has a huge impact on daily quality of life.

We want to know—what determines the location of knowledge-intensive and creative economic activity? Paradoxically, these activities are becoming more geographically concentrated over time in a relatively small number of places. Despite Internet and e-mail, face to face interaction is still a very important way to exchange and share knowledge, which is most easily done in large urban concentrations.

Something about these places draws people to them. There is a critical mass of other people who are working in the same related areas—so there is a community that develops where people with an occupational affinity are drawn to. It’s particularly important if there are people doing cutting-edge work in their fields.

This is very important for public policy. Canada has a large population of people in metropolitan areas but it also has a sizable population of people who live in medium and smaller sized communities. We’ve found that relative location also matters. If you can offer people in industries the best of both worlds—the bright lights and specialized services of the big city, with the lower cost of living and outdoor experiences of a smaller centre—it makes a big difference. If the medium to small sized community is more remote, then the challenges of drawing people in are far greater.

What is the impact of your research on the national economy?

It is clear that our national economy is anchored in city regions. A large proportion of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is related to knowledge-intensive and creative economic activity, and this has been growing dramatically. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the future of our economic competitiveness relies on the characteristics of our city-regions, and how well they can host, nurture and support innovation. You can’t craft an economic strategy without looking at urban policy.

What helps you think creatively as a researcher?

I find that international travel is always very instructive in opening your eyes and helping you understand how different societies approach the same problems. Face to face interaction with clusters of people who work in the same area helps you engage in deep, lengthy topics of common interest. And I also find working in interdisciplinary research groups to be very stimulating. Ideas spill across boundaries, leading to insights that wouldn’t arise when you talk to people in your own field.

How did accepting a six-year term as the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Toronto fit into your overall career plans?

At first I wondered if it would be possible to maintain any momentum in research while also running a big faculty. But I’ve been here long enough to recognize that though I would need to cut back substantially, I could still maintain an active presence in research, which the university has encouraged me to do. Universities carry an increasingly important role as an anchor of the urban economy, a producer of knowledge and a centre for interesting cultural activities that enrich the life of a city. It’s amazing how the questions I work on come up in my daily work as the dean. For instance, I might want to recruit a great scholar to Toronto, which has to compete with any number of other great cities they could choose to live in. What’s interesting is how important certain amenities are to highly educated people when thinking about where to live—things like great schools, public services, safe neighbourhoods and rich cultural activities.

What’s your favourite Canadian city?

I’ve lived in Toronto for over 25 years. It’s a city whose charms aren’t obvious until you live here, and though I’m not fond of the winter weather, it’s a place that has gotten better and better. Its diversity and openness makes it so cosmopolitan in so many ways. It’s a great city for music, for cultural festivities, for eating—I can’t think of another city that has more to offer for the same price. On world terms, it’s a remarkably affordable place to live.