Weekend Reading

In the comments of a good post on JFJ by Bitter Leaf Fan, I saw a link to the thesis "Memory, Modernity, and the City: An Interpretive Analysis of Montreal and Toronto’s Respective Moves
From Their Historic Professional Hockey Arenas " prepared by Lisa Anne Gunderson a few years ago for her Master of Arts in Sociology.

In Chapter Five this new emphasis on multiculturalism was described as one of the reasons why Montesano, among others, experienced the Maple Leaf Gardens closing ceremony as "awkward." The Toronto case examined here showed the Maple Leafs organization as a strong symbol for the traditional WASP elite class in this city, and the kind of place they built. As such, Maple Leaf Gardens symbolized the old, dated, and even ‘backwards’ aspect of Toronto. What is interesting is how the Gardens are also venerated as a traditional place of civic pride and hockey glory. Yet the power of the ideology of progress and the belief in Toronto’s new orientation to multiculturalism can be seen in the influence it has in creating and shaping newer presuppositions of Torontonian identity.

It's 140 pages or so. There will be a short quiz on Monday.