Sean Grisdale
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E-mail:
Research and Professional Interests
I am a human geographer trained in critical urban theory and political economy. My interests include: ideologies of the “smart” city; the confluence of platform/digital capitalism and contemporary urban development; gentrification and rent theory; condo-ism and the financialization of housing; the political economy of land and land ownership; neoliberalism and the welfare state; the institutionalization of real estate investing; and urban inequality. I have published research on the impact of short-term rentals on the housing market, and the rise of condominiums as a dominant new form of rental housing in Canada. I am currently conducting dissertation research on the history of urban public land management and housing in Canadian cities.
Why Geography at UTM?
I was drawn to UTM by a supportive supervisor, an inspiring graduate cohort and the department’s generous financial and educational resources.
Honours and Awards
- 2019-2022 - SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral)
- 2018 - Michael Ralph Walsh Ontario Graduate Scholarship
- 2016 - SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship (Masters)
- 2015 - Michael Ralph Walsh Ontario Graduate Scholarship
Publications
- Grisdale, S. and Walks, A. (In Press). Rise overrun: Condoization, gentrification and the changing political economy of renting in Toronto. Urban Planning, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.17645/up.v7i4.5742
- Grisdale, S. (In Press). The role of public land in affordable housing. In Affordable Housing Challenge Project (Ed.). Advancing the right to housing in Toronto: Critical perspectives on the GTA's housing crisis and how to solve it. [Report]. Toronto: University of Toronto. https://affordablehousingchallenge.ca/projects/
- Grisdale, S. (2021). Mobilizing the platform economy: Regulating short-term rentals in Toronto. In A. Zwick & Z. Spicer (Eds.), The Platform Economy and the Smart City. McGill-Queen's University Press.
- Grisdale, S. (2021). Displacement by disruption: Short-term rentals and the political economy of “belonging anywhere” in Toronto. Urban Geography, 42(5), 654-680. DOI:
10.1080/02723638.2019.1642714 - Hawes, E. and Grisdale, S. (2020). Housing crisis in a Canadian global city: Financialization, buy-to-let investors and short-term rentals in Toronto’s rental market. In S. Bunce, N. Livingstone, L. March, S. Moore, & A. Walks. (Eds.), Critical dialogues of urban governance, development and activism: London & Toronto. UCL Press.
- Grisdale, S. (2018). What Airbnb is doing to Toronto’s rental apartment market. Spacing Toronto. Available at: http://spacing.ca/toronto/2018/04/25/airbnb-torontos-rental-apartment-market/