Life Stories of Displacement oral history project solidified our objective to capture the history of recent gentrification in Kitchener-Waterloo core areas that are walkable from the LRT, as well as to make displacement more tangible for the community. Thanks to the ongoing collaboration with the University of Waterloo School of Planning, and the funding through the Ontario Job Creation Partnership program, we are opening a call for participants to support data collections.
This research starts with interviews to map the changes with buildings, streets, houses, stores, community spaces, neighbourhoods, and people's lives in the last five to ten years. Our cities continue to change during the pandemic and COVID-19 has also let to challenges in housing.
The interviews will focus on two main topics:
- How your housing situation or your community has changed in the last 5 years or so, and
- How the current Covid19 pandemic is impacting your housing situation.
We will focus on group specific experiences of racialized, newcomer, Indigenous, LGBTQ2+ communities, and intersection with gender, age and ability. Participants will receive a $40 gift card.
Our focus is still in the urban core alongside LRT in Kitchener and Waterloo, and we hope to explore displacement out of the core more in depth in our next project.
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This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee. The interview will take place at a mutually agreed time and be conducted over the telephone.
To book an interview, please contact the research team at urbanchange@uwaterloo.ca.
Faryal Diwan, 519-465-6517
William Turman, 519-465-6516
For more information about the research project, contact:
Aleksandra Petrovic, 519-579-3800 ext.4 or aleksandra@waterlooregion.org
Professor Brian Doucet, 519-888-4567 ext. 38594 or brian.doucet@uwaterloo.ca
Acknowledgement to Neelu Mehta, GIS Mapping associate.
Funded by the Government of Ontario
