Canadian Journal of Urban Research

Une analyse médiatique de l’accueil des nouvelles mobilités à Montréal : De Communauto aux Trottinettes

2023-08-30T13:53:44-05:00

Urban mobility has evolved rapidly in recent years with the diversification of mobility innovations. Our analysis focuses on the reception, expressed through early media coverage, of shared and self-service mobility services in Montreal.
Using seven case studies (Communauto, Bixi, Auto-mobile, Car2Go, electric Bixi and bicycles (Jump) and self-service scooters without anchoring (Lime and Bird)), we seek to understand how the press depicts these innovations. For each case, a three-year time window starting one year before its introduction is identified. Three major daily newspapers in Montreal are used to form our corpus of articles (n=179), published between 1997 and 2021. This analysis also informs the dynamics of integration of an innovation in the sociotechnical sector of daily mobility.
Three periods emerge from the coverage. 1) An initial and largely descriptive treatment of innovations on a case-by-case basis, precedes 2) a comparative treatment of cases, which echoes a political vision in favor of the complementarity of transport modes, despite integration complexities. The positive perceptions of the new modes give way to 3) a more critical approach to emerging dockless systems that, while being part of the same movement, produce a variety of distinct issues. The local origin of an innovation and the motorized nature of the innovation seem to positively influence its reception and its integration into the city.

Examining the prevalence of chronic homelessness among single adults according to national definitions in Canada

2023-08-23T16:23:16-05:00

This article examines the prevalence of chronic homelessness when applying definitions used in Canada to a sample of homeless and vulnerably housed single adults enrolled in a multi-city longitudinal study. The federal government’s current definition, Reaching Home, identified the highest proportion of homeless single adults (31 percent; 95% CI = 27.2 – 34.1) as “chronically homeless.” Our findings suggest that the federal definitions of chronic homelessness, which are based on both shelter stays and periods of homelessness outside the shelter system, are double the size of this sub-population when compared to definitions based on shelter stays alone. Participants who were male, identified as Indigenous, and reported problematic drug use, were more likely to be chronically homeless for definitions based on any-kind of homelessness. The findings highlight the importance of counting unsheltered and hidden homelessness to estimate the number of single adults who are chronically homeless.

Imagining the urban other: Place, abjection, and public views of risk

2022-01-12T12:56:04-06:00

This paper examines the relationship between individual feelings of aversion, fear, and disgust of city spaces and broader systems of cognitive urban zoning. We analyze interviews conducted in four distinct urban areas of Ottawa, Canada, working with an open-ended method to learn about how urban individuals understand the concept of “risk.” We identify fear of crime as a central risk perceived by the respondents and observe how they construct boundaries between themselves and perceived “risky” zones, occurrences, and bodies. Drawing from Kristeva’s theory of abjection, we trace a semiotic system of Othering in the respondents’ narratives, examining the symbolic cleansing that occurs when respondents attempt to differentiate themselves from what they perceive as encroaching Otherness. With focus on claims about four distinct neighbourhoods, we argue that risk in the city is configured through physical and imaginative mobilities, through which inhabitants construct boundaries and attempts to cleanse or purify “risky” spaces. We conclude that the sense of abjection and/or the experience of aversion is a way that fear is mapped onto cities. This research shows how city spaces are zoned through fear-based semiotic systems. We also raise questions about the relationship between these semiotic systems and actual tangible threats in these spaces.

Le rôle des municipalités dans le développement et l’épanouissement des minorités francophones

2023-08-30T14:05:01-05:00

This study examines the role of municipalities in the development and vitality of Francophone minority communities.
The municipality can be of particular importance to Francophones in minority settings given the growing role of municipalities in cultural, recreational and socio-economic areas, as well as the fact that local government is the only level of government where Francophones outside Quebec may form the majority or represent a significant demographic weight. This paper reports on the main findings of a survey of municipalities across the country with a Francophone population of 6% or more or member of a Francophone or bilingual association. The results focus on practices, as well as some of the factors explaining them, around the themes of Francophone weight and power, language status, languages of communication, languages of service and Francophone spaces, and public recognition.