and Production Methods

The North American housebuilding industry is central to the production ofurban space and the provision ofhousing. Yet surprisingly, housebuilding has received little scholarly attention in the housing, urban studies and industrial organisation literatures. Most of the major studies ofthe industry appeared in the early postwar years. These early studies interpreted the industry in terms ofthe preferred model of industrial organisation at the time, a model based on Fordist economies of scale, vertical integration and a highly segmented division of labour. Housebuilding's many small firms, labour intensive methods and subcontracting seemed underdeveloped, even backward, to observers. However, recent industrial resttucturing has called into question the superiority of Fordist methods and permits a reinterpretation ofhousebuilding. This thesis provides such a reinterpretation based on a review ofthe organisation of housebuilding in North America since WWII and a case study ofthe industry in Ontario and its major urban region., Toronto. The case studies of Ontario and Toronto are based on quantitative and qualitativ