Canadian Geographer-Geographe Canadien最新文献

Each winter, purpose-built outdoor skating rinks are constructed in backyards and community parks across much of Canada and the northern United States. Past research projects that warmer winters will make it increasingly difficult to build outdoor rinks without artificial refrigeration. Here we build upon previous studies by mapping areas of North America where present average January temperatures are generally suitable each year for building outdoor rinks, and how this area will change by the 2050s and 2080s. Using projections from downscaled general circulation models, we show how under current emissions pathways, average January temperatures will become too mild by the 2050s to build outdoor rinks across much of eastern North America in most winters, and this area will expand by the 2080s to include most of the western United States. Under high emissions scenarios (RCP 8.5), unsuitably mild January temperatures expand to include densely populated areas of Canada's Prairie provinces by the 2080s. In short, many North Americans who build outdoor rinks every winter will, by mid-century, be living in areas where temperatures are only cold enough to do so occasionally, creating a range of social, cultural, and health implications for people living in those regions.

Alternative food systems (AFS), which are known for their reduced food supply chain and have positive benefits for health, the environment, and local communities, offer an alternative to the conventional (industrialized) system of quality food. However, several studies question the accessibility to these food systems, especially when food insecurity remains a significant issue for many communities in North America. This article examines the accessibility of AFS among lower-income populations by taking into account the urban context, including the food environment and proximity to production areas. Using the case of a borough of Montreal and the medium-sized city of Victoriaville (Quebec), we carried out a mixed methodology combining mapping and observation of the food environment and semi-structured interviews. We show that the price of AFS (economic dimension of its access) is moderated by factors specific to each territory such as temporality, relationships to food and agriculture, and proximity to producers. The Montreal borough and the medium-sized city also stand out for their way of (re)connecting to agricultural producers. These results could help optimize public policies that focus on access to quality food and thus make AFS more accessible.

When it comes to making planning and development decisions, the concepts of small, medium-sized, or large cities are sometimes used to adapt public policies and instruments, or even to highlight challenges that are specific to certain categories of city. In this article, we take a look at the various dimensions that can be used to characterize cities, so as to empirically test a multi-criteria approach and build a typology of Quebec cities. Using an ascending hierarchical classification, we derive 11 classes of cities, whose conceptualization and graphic representation enable us to highlight their role and, in part, to localize their polarized area. This article complements and adds to works undertaken by other researchers over the last 20 years. Although it does not aim to propose specific changes to public policies and instruments, this article may serve to inform public decision makers in the development of such policies and instruments, and to enrich academic debates on the nature of small and medium-sized towns in particular.

Social scientists, geographers, criminologists, and health scientists are often tasked with finding data to best capture the impact of “community context” on individual outcomes, including residential services, physical resources, and social institutions. One outlet for such data in Canada is Digital Map Technologies Inc. (DMTI) Spatial, which offers a national repository of over one million businesses and recreational points of interest. The database is generated through CanMap Streetfiles, which includes geocodes of each point's precise location. These data are available to researchers from their university data library and Esri Canada, but primarily available to private sector and government markets. That said, the goal of the current paper is to encourage researchers to access this rich yet under-utilized data source. Each service, business, or resource in the DMTI Spatial database is assigned to a respective category using Standard Industrial Classification codes and North American Industrial Classification System codes. It is not clear, however, which is the more reliable coding criteria. We provide an overview of our review of DMTI Spatial data and take-away suggestions for using this valuable resource for future research on meso-level residential markers.

This article explores the emotional geographies underpinning the experiences of temporary agricultural workers who migrate yearly to fields of labour in Canada. The research is based on a transnational qualitative study in Quebec, Mexico, and Guatemala. To provide a theoretical framework for this article, we bring the concepts of geoeconomics and geographies of emotion into conversation. We then briefly present the history and evolution of temporary agricultural work, highlighting its deeply racialized and gendered nature. We argue that the mobilization and interiorization of a particular form of masculinity and emotional expression are central to both the exploitation of workers and their acceptance of their working conditions. These forms of masculinity and emotional expression are tightly bound to the workers’ role as household providers. Workers demonstrate satisfaction and pride in fulfilling their roles while negotiating an ongoing fear of job loss if they do not comply with work expectations. We argue that this represents a new form of subaltern masculinity that underpins Canadian geoeconomic strategy.