Peter V. Hall
Where to find me
Telephone: (778) 782-6691
Fax: (778) 782-5297
Email: pvhall [at] sfu [dot] ca
Postal Address
Urban Studies Program
SFU at Harbour Centre
515 W Hasting Street
Vancouver
BC, V6B 5K3
CANADA
Updated: December 2011
BSocSc (Cape Town, 1989), MSc (LSE, 1995), PhD (Berkeley, 2002)
- Associate Professor, Urban Studies Program
- Associate Member, Department of Geography
Welcome! You’ve found me in Vancouver, on the west coast of British Columbia. I grew up in and around another west coast port city, Cape Town, South Africa. My work bridges the disciplines of geography, planning and economics, often combining quantitative and qualitative social research methods. I am motivated by a concern with equity, and I am especially interested in the role of the local public sector in shaping the geography of economic activity and opportunity.
My research program addresses three areas related to development at the local, urban and regional scales:
- Port Cities, Seaports and Logistics
- Local Labour Markets and Employment
- Community and Local Economic Development
Port Cities, Seaports and Logisticstop
Ports are fascinating and important because they are places where communities, cities and regions meet global economic actors and forces. Across the city-region, the port-logistics industry is comprised of a network of activities that begin at the waterfront and extend to suburban warehouse distribution centres. I am interested in the connections between these shipping and logistics networks, the port institutions that govern and regulate them, and the resulting patterns of employment and development in port cities. My current SSHRC-funded research project (Global gateway, local benefit?) focuses on the implications of the Asia-Pacific Gateway for the Vancouver metropolitan region.
Publications on this topic:
Hall, PV, McCalla, RJ, Comtois, C and Slack, B. (eds) Integrating Seaports and Trade Corridors Aldershot: Ashgate.(publisher)
(forthcoming) “Why are maritime ports (still) urban, and why should policy makers care?”, Maritime Policy and Management. [With Wouter Jacobs] (abstract)
2011 “The Location and Global Network Structure of Maritime Advanced Producer Services”, Urban Studies. 48(13):2751-2771 [With Wouter Jacobs and Hans Koster] (abstract)
2010 “Shifting Proximities: the Maritime Ports Sector in an era of Global Supply Chains”, Regional Studies. 44(9): 1103-115. [With Wouter Jacobs] (abstract)
2010 “Maritime ports and the politics of reconnection”, in: Desfor, G, Laidley, J, Schubert, D, and Stevens, Q. (eds) Transforming Urban Waterfronts: Fixity and Flow, 17-34. Abingdon: Routledge. [With Anthony Clark] (publisher)
2009 “Container ports, local benefits and transportation worker earnings”, GeoJournal. 74(1): 67-83. (abstract) (pdf)
2009 “Ports in Proximity, Proximity in Ports: towards a typology”, in: Notteboom, T, De Langen, P and Ducruet, C. (eds) Ports in proximity: essays on competition and coordination among adjacent seaports, 29-40. Aldershot: Ashgate. [With Wouter Jacobs] (publisher)
2009 Innovation and Stakeholder Collaboration in West Coast Gateways: An Analysis of the Seaport and Freight Movement Industries. Report for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. [With Clarence Woudsma and Tom O’Brien] (abstract)
2008 Global Logistics and Local Dilemmas. Proceedings of the International Conference on Gateways and Corridors. (link)
2007 “Seaports, urban sustainability and paradigm shift” Journal of Urban Technology, 14(2): 87-101. (abstract) (pdf)
2007 “What Conditions Supply Chain Strategies of Ports? The Case of Dubai” GeoJournal, 68(4): 327-342. [With Wouter Jacobs] (abstract) (pdf)
2007 “Which link, which chain? Inserting Durban into global automotive supply chains” in: Wang, J, Olivier, D, Notteboom, T and Slack, B. (eds) Ports, Cities, and Global Supply Chains. Aldershot: Ashgate. [With Glen Robbins](publisher)
2006 “Guest Editorial: Re-Exploring the Interface between Economic and Transport Geography” Environment and Planning A, 38(8): 1401-1408 [With Markus Hesse and Jean-Paul Rodrigue]. (abstract) (pdf)
2005 “Inter-firm relationships and the evolution of transportation systems: the case of the car carriers and automobile importers to the United States” Maritime Policy and Management, 32(3): 279-295 (Special Issue on Shipping in the Americas). [With Daniel Olivier] (abstract) (pdf)
2004 “’We’d have to sink the ships’: Impact Studies and the 2002 West Coast Port Lockout” Economic Development Quarterly, 18(4): 354-367. (abstract) (pdf)
2004 “Mutual specialization, seaports and the geography of automobile imports” Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 95(2): 135-146. (abstract) (pdf)
2004 “Persistent variation: flexibility, organization and strategy in the logistics of importing automobiles to the United States, 1980-1999” Environment and Planning A, 36(3): 529-546. (abstract) (pdf)
2003 “Regional Institutional Transformation: Reflections from the Baltimore Waterfront”. Economic Geography, 79(4): 347-363. (abstract) (pdf)
2003 “Development Opportunities at Seaports” in Frey, A. (ed) Just- in-time real estate, Washington: Urban Land Institute. (publisher)
2000 “Regional Development and Institutional Lock-in: A case study of Richards Bay, South Africa”, Critical Planning, 7 (Spring): 87-102. (link) (pdf)
© PV Hall, 2005
Local Labour Markets and Employmenttop
I am interested in the dynamics of local labour markets, and in the public policies that may reverse the rising inequality in contemporary labour market outcomes. A recent research project has examined the labour market situation of immigrants in Canada’s hi-tech clusters. I have also worked on analyzing the costs and benefits of local living and minimum wage policies.
Publications on this topic:
2010 “The value of ’experience’ and the labour market entry of new immigrants to Canada”, Canadian Public Policy 36(2): 181-198. [With Tulin Sadouzai] (abstract)
2009 “Migration, hukou status and labor market segmentation: the case of hi-tech development in Dalian”, Environment and Planning A, 41(7): 1647-1666. [With Chuncui Velma Fan and Geoffrey Wall] (abstract)
2009 “The Targeted Wage Subsidy Program: How Program Design creates Incentives for ’Creaming’”, Just Labour, 13: 56-72. [With Pam Lahey] (abstract)
2008 “Differences in hi-tech and native-born immigrant wages and earnings across Canadian cities”, The Canadian Geographer. 52(3): 271-290. [With Amir Khan] (abstract) (pdf)
2006 The Labour Market Situation Of Highly Skilled Immigrants In Canada’s Hi-Tech Clusters. Working Paper 2006 D-18, Skills Research Initiative, Industry Canada / Human Resources Skills Development Canada / Social Science and Humanities Research Council: Ottawa. (link)
2005 “Living Wage Policies at San Francisco Airport: Impacts on Workers and Businesses”, Industrial Relations, 44(1): 106-138. (Symposium on Living Wages). [With Michael Reich and Ken Jacobs] (abstract)
2001 “A small raise for the bottom”. In: Lincoln, J and P Ong,. (eds), The State of California Labor. Institute of Industrial Relations: Berkeley. (link)
1997 “Unemployment and Urban Development in Gauteng”, Development Southern Africa, 14 (4): 395-411.
© PV Hall, 2005
Community and Local Economic Developmenttop
My work in this area has addressed a diversity of topics: social enterprise, neoliberal funding regimes, small town development, housing, urban management and regional governance. A recent project with Dr Pamela Stern examined citizen engagement in community and economic development in the Northern Ontario town of Cobalt. I serve on the Canadian CED Network's Research Advisory Committee.
Publications on this topic:
(forthcoming) “The role of a good food box program in fruit and vegetable consumption and food security”, Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research. [With Christiana Miewald and David Holben] (abstract)
(forthcoming) “The 2010 Cultural Olympiad: Playing for the Global or Local Stage?”, International Journal of Cultural Policy . [With Duncan Low] (abstract)
2012 “Measuring the Size, Scope and Scale of the Social Enterprise Sector in Manitoba”, Report of The Canadian CED Network (Manitoba) and the BALTA Research Alliance. [With Ryan O’Connor, Peter Elson and Brendan Reimer] (link)
2010 “The Proposal Economy”, Critique of Anthropology. 30(3): 243-264. [With Pamela Stern] (abstract)
2010 “The Global Imperative”, in: Bunting, T, Filion, P and Walker, R. (eds) Canadian Cities in Transition IV, 56-69. Don Mills: Oxford University Press. (publisher)
2010 “Historical Limits: narrowing possibilities in ’Ontario’s Most Historic Town’”, The Canadian Geographer, 54(2): 209-227. [With Pamela Stern] (abstract)
2010 “Strength, Size, Scope: A Survey of Social Enterprises in Alberta and BC”, Research Report C16 of the BALTA Research Alliance. [With Peter Elson] (link)
2009 “Reluctant Rural Regionalists”, Journal of Rural Studies. 25(1): 67-76. [With Pamela Stern] (abstract) (pdf)
2008 “Decline and No Growth: Canada’s Forgotten Urban Interior”, Canadian Journal of Regional Science, 31(1): 39-57. [With Heather Hall]
2002 “Economic Development for a new era: an examination of the adoption of explicit economic development strategies by Durban local government following the April 1994 elections”. In: Freund, W and Padayachee, V (eds), (D)urban Vortex: A South African City in Transition. Durban: University of Natal Press. [With Glen Robbins.]
1997 “Regeneration Policies for Peripheral Housing Estates: inward- and outward-looking approaches”, Urban Studies, 34 (5-6): 873-890. (link) (pdf)
© PV Hall, 2005