Research Focus

The Chair’s research program (2022-2025) is structured around three main axes:

 

 

Axis 1.Social determinants of health

The reduction of social inequalities in health must be based on an improvement in the social determinants of health, i.e. the material and social living conditions of people living in situations of socio-economic disadvantage. Housing (affordability, quality, salubrity) and neighbourhoods (e.g. green spaces, sense of security, accessible services, recreation) are recognized as determinants that have a significant impact on health and well-being.

In order for these environments to promote health and equity, they must provide a healthy living environment (e.g., air quality, safety) and allow residents to:

  • exercise power over their living environment to ensure that it meets their needs and aspirations;
  • develop different forms of capital, including relationships with neighbors, stakeholders and decision-makers (social capital) as well as local resources (socio-territorial capital) that can help them achieve their goals.

Axis 1 brings together intervention research aimed at improving the quality of the residential environment of people in situations of socio-economic disadvantage. For example, the Flash sur mon quartier! and Synergie projects involve tenants in improving their living environment, while the Logement social et ses effets project attempts to better understand how Quebec social housing programs influence people’s life trajectories. All these projects aim to identify improvements to the living environments of people living in poverty in order to reduce inequalities.

 

 

Axis 2. Public policies

It is already known that public policies have the greatest potential to reduce social inequalities, as they directly affect the redistribution of wealth and resources within the population. However, little is known about the barriers and facilitators to the adoption of public policies that are more effective in addressing poverty and social exclusion, and thus reducing social inequalities in health. Prejudice against people in a situation of socio-economic disadvantage is probably a barrier.

This axis brings together studies that focus on strategies to improve public policies to address poverty and social exclusion, at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. For example, the Towards a Fairer Society project is developing and evaluating a new intervention aimed at reducing prejudice against people receiving last-resort assistance and increasing support for more generous income support policies. The emerging partnership Together to Improve Policy on Poverty and Social Exclusion is looking at the practices of advocacy organizations and the barriers they face in bringing about the changes needed to achieve greater social justice.

 

 

Axis 3. Participation of people experiencing poverty and exclusion

In order to succeed in reducing social inequalities, it is essential to integrate the experiential knowledge of people in a situation of socio-economic disadvantage into decision-making on issues that concern them. These people face multiple barriers to their participation in research or in the usual mechanisms of citizen participation, so that their point of view is not sufficiently known and integrated into the decision-making process. This situation contributes to the perpetuation of social inequalities.

The Chair is interested in best practices for the inclusion of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion in research and citizen participation mechanisms. All the studies conducted by the Chair involve peer researchers, i.e. people who have lived experience of poverty and exclusion. These people are fully integrated into the research team. They are involved in decision-making at all stages of the project, including the development of the grant application, the conduct of the study, the analyses and the dissemination of its results. Peer researchers have also been members of the Chair’s governance committee since its creation.

This axis brings together studies that document the practices of inclusion of people living in poverty in research and in the design of interventions that concern them. We are interested in the best practices in the field and their human, scientific and professional impact.