ABSTRACT
There is a growing sense that the North American low-density and automobile-dependent urban form is unsustainable from the perspective of quality of life, the economy and the environment. Yet for all the calls for a transformation of development patterns, trends inherited from the post-Second World War period die hard. This chapter employs structuration theory to generate a conceptual framework that identifies factors of structural stability and transformation. It then uses this framework to account for difficulties in achieving a transition to higher density and less automobile-dependent forms of development. The evidence originates from Toronto and points to an uncertain transition in urban development. The chapter closes with a consideration of society-wide implications of the difficulties in redirecting structural tendencies when an environmental crisis looms on the horizon.
