Faculty

My fascination with urban geography began as a child. Endless hours were spent constructing and de-constructing urban landscapes in the basement of my parents' suburban home in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

My interest in urban studies followed me through adulthood, and I completed degrees in urban geography at Brock University (BA, Hons, 1978) and Queen's University (MA, 1980; PhD, 1988). My university teaching career began in 1984 at Nippissing University. I moved to UFV in 1992.

• PhD, Queens University, 1988
• MA, Queens University, 1980
• BA (Hons), Brock University, 1978

• GEOG 130: Canada (on-line)
• GEOG 252: Explanation in Geography: Quantitative Techniques
• GEOG 344: Urban Development
• GEOG 421: Borderlands
• GEOG 440: Advanced Research Topics in Urban Geography

My research specialties are focused on the study of 1) urban housing markets and 2) cross-border regions with a focus on the Fraser Lowland.

Urban housing markets

My longest standing research interest is twentieth century housing market development, especially the origins and role of lending infrastructure.

My investigations address the dynamics of affordability, accessibility, and social equity within urban housing environments, with particular attention paid to how policy interventions shape market outcomes. By employing mixed-methods approaches, I aim to uncover the underlying patterns that influence spatial distribution of housing and its impact on diverse communities.

This was initiated in my PhD dissertation (1988), a study of the origins, and urban impact, of Canada’s initial piece of federal housing legislation, the 1935 Dominion Housing Act (DHA). In Canada and the United States, the modern mortgage market is generally regarded as having played a key role in the growth and design of post-war suburbs.

My study of Canadian housing policy is set within the broader context of regulation theory. Regulation theory, which examines how economic and social systems are stabilized through institutional arrangements, provides a lens for understanding shifts in housing policy. In this regard, the establishment of the modern residential mortgage is understood to have been central to what is known as the "intensive regime of capitalist accumulation"—a period in the latter twentieth century marked by the rapid expansion and consolidation of capital through increased investment in housing and related infrastructure in Canada and other advanced capitalist nations. The development of the modern mortgage was critical to the expansion of home ownership, particularly in suburban areas.

Publications on this theme:

• J. Belec, R. Harris and G. Rose, 2018. The Federal Role on Early Postwar Suburbanization. Housing Policy Debate. DOI: 1080/10511482.2018.1474124
• J. Belec. 2015. Underwriting Suburbanization: The National Housing Act and the Canadian City. The Canadian Geographer. 59(3): 341-353.

Related opinion pieces in the Globe and Mail:

• "We're going to hear a lot more about the financialization of hoursing this year", 6 January 2022. 
• “Canada’s transition away from single-family detached home will be messy”, 25 April 2022.

Cross-border regions

Research on the Canada–US border began in 1999 with my UFV colleague Doug Nicol and Patrick Buckley from Western Washington University. Our collaboration included a joint graduate/undergraduate course (GEOG 421: Borderlands) and border studies research.  

Publications on this theme:

• P. Buckley, J. Belec and A. Anderson. 2017. Modelling Cross-Border Regions, Place-Making, and Resource Management: A Delphi Analysis, Resources, 6 (3) 32.
• P. Buckley, J. Belec and J. Levy. 2015. Resource Management in Borderlands: Evolution from Competing Interests to Common Aversions. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,  12(7): 7541-7557.
• J. Belec and P.Buckley. 2014. Democracy and the Space of Energy Flows: The Practice of Bordered Transnationalism in the Pacific Northwest. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 29(3): 291-302.
• P. Buckley and J. Belec, 2011. Cascadia Reconsidered: Questioning Micro-Scale Cross-Border Integration in the Fraser Lowland. University of the Fraser Valley Research Review  3 (3).
• P. Buckley and J. Belec, 2009. Investigation of Cross Border Environmental Management and Consciousness at the Local Level: Power Plant Development within a Confined International Air Shed. Memoirs of the Muroran Institute of Technology 59: 213-227.

• D. Nicol, J. Belec, and P. Buckley, 2003. Teaching Geography in an International Region: Challenges of the Pacific Northwest Borderland, Journal of Geography  102 ( 2): 47-57.