The field of cultural studies continues to be defined in terms of its indeterminacy and interdisciplinarity. Yet, the leitmotifs of the field (commodification, reproduction, hegemony, mass culture, popular culture, and the culture industry) are suggestive of a shared genealogy in the historical transition form the manufacturing centre to the suburbanized spatialities of consumer society. In this respect, North American and European cultural theory can be viewed as an open-ended project almost coterminous with the shifting structure of the first-world capitalist city.

At the present moment this critical history is particularly significant as a counter to the dominant media and political discourses trumpeting renewal, restructuring and recommendations for a “new deal for cities” and a “new urban agenda.” It was in this context that the organizing committee for the 2004 conference sent out a call for papers that revisited the city as a site for the production of theory, dominant/resistant practices, and as the location of political struggle.

The Second Annual Canadian Association of Cultural Studies Conference included over a hundred papers that intervened with as many optics of analysis. In keeping with the CACS/ASEC goal of developing an organization that is as open as possible to the expression of a wide-range of views and opinions it was decided that all contributions submitted would be included in the proceedings.

Finally, the working papers collected for Culturepoles: City Spaces, Urban Politics & Metropolitan Theory are reflective of a specific political, academic and theoretical conjuncture. It is our hope that they will serve as a first instalment in the development of a CACS/ASEC archive.