Methods for the Study of Everyday Cohabitation

ABSTRACT

The current issue brings together researchers who have studied the dynamics of cohabitation in various settings, placing emphasis on the ways in which researchers have shown a great deal of creativity in creating or adapting research methods in sometimes very difficult circumstances. In recent years, empirical studies of everyday cohabitation in settings have emerged in different disciplines, however, there has been relatively little research on the methods used to study this phenomenon, especially from a systemic or comparative perspective. This trend in the academic literature led us to ask a number of important questions about how to study cohabitation and why. How can emerging research on public spaces and social relations facilitate new forms of comparative analysis and social inquiry? What are the methodological and conceptual issues that must be addressed in order to understand how new forms of everyday cohabitation are reshaping cities?

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bob W. White

Bob W. White is full professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Montreal. His current research is focused on intercultural policy and practice in various settings : intercultural cities, intercultural policy frameworks and civic-based forms of belonging. As the director of the Laboratory for Research on Intercultural Relations (LABRRI), his most recent project involves an in-depth ethnographic study of intercultural dynamics and policies in Montreal, Québec, where he is also the coordinator for REMIRI, a regional network of cities working on integration and intercultural relations. Together with Lomomba Emongo he recently published L’interculturel au Québec : rencontres historiques et enjeux politiques (PUM, 2014). His most recent book is entitled Intercultural Cities: Policy and Practice for a New Era (Palgrave, 2017).

Annick Germain

Annick Germain is a full professor of sociology at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Montréal, Québec. She taught at the Institut d'urbanisme de l'Université de Montréal before joining the Centre Urbanisation Culture Société. Author of numerous publications on Montreal, including Montreal: A Quest for a Metropolis published with Damaris Rose in London by John Wiley & Sons in 2000, her research focuses on social mixing in residential projects, public spaces, neighbourhoods and immigration. She has directed the Quebec Metropolis Centre, Immigration and Metropolis.