Beyond Shopping: The Toronto Eaton Centre and the Future of the City

• In Event: Who Governs the City? Public-Private Sector Tensions

Abstract

This paper explores how the Toronto Eaton Centre has become a symbol of capitalist progress and mythmaking in Toronto, serving not only as a commercial hub but also as a testament to the city's aspirations in the latter half of the 20th century.

This paper presents an analysis of the Toronto Eaton Centre's impact on urban life through the lens of Walter Benjamin's exploration of the Paris arcades as enigmatic spaces of wonder. Rooted in Benjamin's reflections on capitalism's enduring promise of progress, I uncover the Eaton Centre's historical origins as a symbol of democratized consumerism in the 20th century to better understand its lasting influence on the city's architectural landscape, local business ecosystem, and cultural identity.

Though mega-malls have served multiple economic and political functions in cities across the globe, they also concentrate questions about inequalities of political access and participation throughout their planning, development, and redevelopment. This therefore leads us to question who these institutions serve, and how they restrict and highlight specific urban imaginaries. As a nexus of urban social life and the valuation of consumerism in Toronto, the Eaton Centre is a helpful case for understanding how these public-private spaces concretize the concentration of decision-making among elites, which may negatively impact residents. If residents do not have a significant say in how their cities are shaped, then how does the city imagine itself, and who is truly involved in creating that image?

I argue that the Eaton Centre transcends its identity as a mere commercial hub and symbolizes Toronto's aspirations to evolve into a world-class metropolis. By examining the institutions and people involved in the Toronto Eaton Centre's development and the mall's role as a conduit of change and a catalyst for cultural evolution, this paper encourages a more critical view of the intersection between sensory experiences of urban landscapes and the local political and economic dynamics contained within that space.

Author

• Helena Najm