Women face gendered and intersectional disparities in caregiving duties, income, and wealth, and exposure to gender-based violence, and also disproportionately live in non-market housing. As such, they especially benefit from infrastructures of care. We examine to what extent these infrastructures are locally available to those living in non-market housing in three Canadian communities. We explore both the presence of non-market housing units and the socio-demographic characteristics of places in which this housing is located, and how these may be associated with resources in the urban environment that value, enable, and support caring. We find that most neighbourhoods with non-market rentals are located in places with moderate infrastructures of care, rather than being situated in care deserts or care oases, concepts we introduce in this paper. Similarly, non-market housing neighbourhoods with higher levels of disadvantage have moderate infrastructures of care in place, but some are actually care deserts. We also provide methodological and conceptual suggestions for further assessing infrastructures of care.
Canada has committed to eliminating accessibility barriers by 2040, yet municipalities lack clear, comparable evidence on where building access breaks down. To address this gap, we set out to produce and test a participatory, city-scale method to measure building accessibility of businesses. We report results from Mapping Our Cities for All, a disabled-led assessment of public-facing businesses in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, and selected small Alberta communities (n=13,804). To evaluate how well our sample reflects local business landscapes, we compared our results with Statistics Canada's Open Database of Businesses by dissemination area and used a Mann–Whitney U test; within the study cities, distributions did not differ, supporting local representativeness. We then profiled accessibility at the city level and identified clusters using hot spot analysis (Getis–Ord Gi*), Global Moran's I, and local indicators of spatial association (LISA) applied to perceived ratings (accessible, partially accessible, not accessible). Across sites, fewer than half of audited businesses were rated fully accessible, with statistically significant clustering of lower accessibility in dense commercial districts. By pairing community audits with standard spatial statistics, we provide a practical baseline for tracking progress toward a barrier-free Canada.
Despite the growing interest in the meaning of place, it remains insufficiently understood in its complexity. The meaning of a place varies according to the nature and scope of our relationships and interpretations, and therefore according to its identity functions and our feelings about it. These functions and feelings are only partially addressed. After presenting the main readings of geography, philosophy, and environmental psychology, which are particularly interested in it, this article proposes, by means of a grid of the identification processes at work and the feelings associated with them, a conceptualization of the triptych sense of place-identity-feeling in order to better identify and articulate the fundamental links that unite the human being to a place and, in so doing, to better assume our territorial condition.
At a time of unprecedented political hypervisibility and discrimination, the mobility of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals subnationally has become a heightened concern. This paper aims to address three questions: What decisions do LGBTQA migrants make when deciding on whether and where to move? What barriers do they face when moving to or settling into a new city? And how do they reflect on their new environments in relation to previous environments? Interviews were conducted with 14 self-identified LGBTQA adults who had all moved to Hamilton, Ontario between 2016 and 2022. Drawing on existing migration literature on causes of and barriers to migration, thematic analysis was carried out across the 14 cases to distill common decision-making themes. These themes include housing and transportation, employment and education, and social and cultural factors like proximity to queer communities and nature. The most difficult barriers to migrating and settling in were housing accessibility and social isolation. Our research contributes to the subnational migration literature on gender and sexual minorities within Canada, especially in that it highlights the interplay between socio-economic determinants of migration and gender/sexual marginalization, and it should be regarded as an exploratory step in further research on this subject.
Dans un contexte régional alimenté par la multiplication des tensions autour de l'accès, de l'usage et du contrôle des ressources naturelles, les mangroves de Douala se révèlent être un terrain emblématique pour apprécier la conflictualité socio-environnementale à l'échelle urbaine. En mobilisant le cadre d'analyse stratégique de la gestion environnementale de Mermet (2011) et une méthodologie mixte, combinant analyse spatiale diachronique (1990-2024), observations de terrain et 27 entretiens semi-dirigés, cette étude met en évidence une perte estimée à plus de 7300 hectares de mangroves en 34 ans. En mettant en lumière la diversité des modèles d'action (organisés, dispersés et discrètes), les résultats démontrent que cette dégradation ne résulte pas uniquement de l'urbanisation informelle et du manque de régulation étatique. En effet, elle s'inscrit dans une configuration d'acteurs pluriels, porteurs de visions concurrentes et évoluant dans un cadre de gouvernance multi-niveaux fragmenté. Au-delà du constat écologique, la gestion des mangroves apparaît à Douala comme une arène politique, révélatrice des tensions entre développement et conservation. Cette étude invite à repenser la gouvernance de ces espaces à travers des dispositifs collaboratifs capables de dépasser les logiques sectorielles pour construire des accords partagés sur l'avenir de ces écosystèmes stratégiques .
This article looks at the multiple uses and meanings given to the processes of territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization in geography. Drawing on an analysis of nearly 250 French and English language articles, it seeks to identify the different approaches and sub-approaches to these notions by geographers in order to outline how this polysemy can undermine a proper understanding of the dual geographical and territorial condition of human beings. Often used in the manner of Latour's black boxes, the processes of deterritorialization, reterritorialization and territorialization are in fact subject to a certain amount of confusion due to both (i) plural and sometimes contradictory uses and understandings and (ii) a strong tendency towards sub-conceptualization.
Concerns about unsustainable food systems have led regions and cities to adopt a circular economy (CE). However, most literature has focused on tangible aspects, with investigation of the social and institutional dimensions. This paper examines how governance and institutional dynamics shape circular food systems, drawing on the Eastern Canadian agrifood hub of Saint-Hyacinthe. We argue that while tailoring governance to local contexts is seen as beneficial, it can also produce unequal outcomes, depending on how public authorities perceive the CE, interact with one another, and engage with other actors. We conducted a content analysis of 69 planning documents and 21 institutional actor interviews. We show that tensions between market-driven objectives and sustainability goals among authorities can create an uneven distribution of benefits, while confusion about roles and responsibilities hinder implementation. Informal strategies often emerge as essential to overcome institutional gaps and advance initiatives. Our analysis highlights the importance of inclusive actor engagement and of navigating market logic so that interventions serve the common good across short-term economic benefits and long-term sustainability goals. Future CE governance frameworks must therefore balance stability with flexibility, keeping formal and informal pathways accessible to diverse actors while maintaining accountability and continuity in CE initiatives.
Cet article s'intéresse, selon une démarche d'analyse géohistorique, à la population scolaire italienne au Cap Bon, en Tunisie, durant la période du Protectorat français (1881–1956) et la décennie suivante. Celui‐ci vise à contribuer à une meilleure compréhension des interactions complexes entre colonisation, éducation et immigration dans un contexte colonial. À travers l'analyse des archives scolaires privées et des registres matricules, le texte met en lumière l'importance significative et la répartition spatiale des élèves italiens de même que leur intégration dans les établissements éducatifs locaux. L'article analyse aussi l'impact des contextes socioéconomiques et politiques mondiaux, tels que les guerres mondiales et la crise économique, sur cette population. À cet égard, l'éducation, vue comme enjeu culturel et identitaire, a été influencée par les tensions entre les langues italienne et française, reflétant les défis paradoxaux de l'intégration sociale et de la préservation culturelle. Au final, l'immigration italienne, majoritairement sicilienne, a façonné le paysage socioéconomique et linguistique du Cap Bon, contribuant au développement agricole et viticole tout en enrichissant la mosaïque multiculturelle locale.
Older adults in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are projected to increase 4-fold from 46 million to 165 million by 2050. Despite this fact, global health policies and programs typically neglect this particular demographic. This is illustrated by the fact that policies and programs directed towards human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) in SSA commonly overlook older adults managing HIV/AIDS, despite this demographic being projected to increase 190% by 2040. To support evidence-informed policy and practice, this scoping review synthesizes peer-reviewed articles focusing on older adults (50-plus years) managing HIV/AIDS in SSA. A systematic search of peer-reviewed articles written in English between 2000 and 2024 resulted in a total of 48,961 articles, of which 42 met the inclusion criteria. Results revealed four primary themes: knowledge of HIV/AIDS, challenges in healthcare settings (such as ageist assumptions from healthcare providers), barriers to HIV/AIDS-related care (including transportation barriers), and experiences of those managing HIV/AIDS (such as difficulties with status disclosure). Findings underscore that to improve the health and wellbeing of older populations living with HIV/AIDS in SSA, policies and programs should address ageism and discrimination in healthcare settings and address financial insecurities.
