John N.H. Britton

Professor Emeritus

 

Department of Geography and Program in Planning
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON  M5S 3G3
phone:  416-978-1595
fax:  416-946-3886
email:  britton@geog.utoronto.ca

Education:

Ph.D. Economic Geography, University of London (LSE), 1966

M.A. Geography, University of Melbourne, 1963

B.A. Geography, University of Sydney, 1960

Research Interests:

Canadian industrial development and technological strategy
Foreign ownership and its impacts.
Innovation policy for small and medium sized enterprises
Canadian impacts of trade liberalization
Industrial networks and innovation in the Toronto region
Clustering and the behaviour of new media in Toronto

Recent Publications:

(forthcoming). “Path dependence and cluster adaptation – A case study of Toronto’s new media industry” International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management   

 

 (with G. Legare). “Clustering and the digital economy: New media in Toronto,” Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 2005, 28, 329-349

(with G. Legare). “Cluster evolution: the relevance of path dependence for Toronto’s multimedia cluster,” in David A. Wolfe and Matthew Lucas, eds, Global Networks and Local Linkages, McGill-Queen's Press with School of Policy Studies, 2005.

“High Technology Localization and Extra-Regional Networks,” Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 2004, 16, 369-390.

(with G. Legare) “Clustered beginnings: anatomy of multimedia in Toronto,” in David A. Wolfe and Matthew Lucas, eds, Clusters in a Cold Climate , McGill–Queen's Press with School of Policy Studies, 2003.

“Network structure of an industrial cluster: electronics in Toronto,” Environment and Planning A, 2003, 35, 983-1006.  

“Regional Implications of North American Integration: A Canadian Perspective on High Technology Manufacturing,” Regional Studies, 2002, 36, 359-374.

“Free Trade and the High-technology Response: A Regional Innovation System Perspective on Toronto” in A. Holbrook and D. Wolfe (eds) Knowledge, Clusters and Regional Innovation: Economic Development in Canada.  Kingston : Queen's-McGill Press with School of Policy Studies, 2002

(with Norcliffe, Barnes and others). ”Canadian Economic Geography at the Millenium,” The Canadian Geographer, 2000, 44, 4 –24

"Does Nationality Still Matter? The New Competition and the Foreign Ownership Question Revisited," in Trevor Barnes and Meric Gertler (eds), Regions, Regulations and Institutions, Routledge, 2000

“Is the Impact of the North American Trade Agreements Zero? The Canadian Case,” Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 21, 1998, 167-196

Editor. Canada and the Global Economy: The Geography of Structural and Technological Change.  McGill Queen's University Press, 1996

“Specialization versus Diversity in Canadian Technological Development," Small Business Economics, 8, 1996, 121-138

"Canada under Free Trade: Defining the Metropolitan Agenda for Innovation Policy", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 17, 1993, 559-577

Work in progress:

Comparative analysis of new media clustering in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal

Current courses:

Undergraduate:

GGR 391S - Research Design in Geography

Doctoral students currently supervised:

Keiran Donoghue - Industrial networks and the process of innovation

Gerry Legare - The Political Economy of the Construction of Culture – a case study of the electronic image-producing complex in Toronto