Digital Notebooks

CIRM’s digital notebooks are knowledge transfer tools intended for the general public as well as researchers and practitioners. They aim to ensure the continuity of the events organized by CIRM through short articles, photos and videos, in addition to offering a summary of the featured activity and a presentation of its participating panellists.

More than a simple report, each notebook is designed to highlight ideas, questions, avenues for reflection, and potential solutions that were discussed during these meetings. The publications are written in the language(s) of the event.


 les enjeux du transport maritime dans le Saint-Laurent

06.03. Montréalais·es et insulaires : Hit the Waters, Montréalers and “Green Cargos: The Challenges of Maritime Transport in the St. Lawrence River

Events held in summer 2021

In this issue, we invite you to revisit the conference-experiences Hit the Waters, Montréalers and Green Cargos: The Challenges of Maritime Transport in the St. Lawrence River held on June 12th and 19th, 2021, in collaboration with Stratégies Saint-Laurent, Studio Sophronik, the Société d’animation de la Promenade Bellerive, and the Comité ZIP Jacques-Cartier as part of our Montréalers and Islanders series, also available as a podcast. In this Notebook, Nathalie Boucher (CRIEM/R.Es.P.I.R.E), Pierre Moro-Lin (Le Comité/UQAM), Linda Collette (Université Laval/Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal), Jean-Pierre Des Rosiers (Geological engineer), Jacynthe Tremblay (Senior Emiritus Member, Ordre des architectes du Québec), and Manon Lanthier (Green Marine) discussed issues of accessibility, urban planning, and sustainable development in the St. Lawrence. 

Published in June 2023, 36 pages [in French].


06.02. Montréalais·es et insulaires : Saint Laurent : lieu de rencontres conference-experience

Event held in summer 2021cover of the digital notebook Saint Laurent : lieu de rencontres

In this issue, we invite you to revisit the conference-experience Le Saint-Laurent: lieu de rencontres, an event that took place on June 5, 2021, in collaboration with the Maison de l’environnement de Verdun as part of our Montréalers and Islanders series, also available as a podcast.This Notebook will immerse you in interviews conducted with Victoria Stanton (Concordia University), Marc Pelletier (EcoMaris), Guillaume Campion (Projet Archipel/Trames), and Guillaume Côté (Projet Archipel/Trames). You will also find texts by Natalie Doonan (CIRM/Université de Montréal), Jason Di Fiore (Héritage Laurentien), and Kathleen Vaughan (Concordia University), as well as a collaborative article by Tina Laphengphrateng (Université du Québec à Rimouski), Anne-Marie Asselin (Organisation Bleue), and Viridiana Jimenez-Moratalla (Réseau Québec Maritime).  

Published in March 2023, 56 pages [in English and in French].


 nordicité fluviale montréalaise06.01. Montréalais·es et insulaires : nordicité fluviale montréalaise conference-experience

Event held in spring 2022

In this issue, the first of a series of four, we present the follow-up to the conference-experience Nordicité fluviale montréalaise held in collaboration with Stratégies Saint-Laurent. Researchers, authors, and practitioners Nathalie Boucher (CIRM / R.Es.P.I.R.E), Sébastien Zappa (RESPIRE-ALIGNE), Marie-Hélène Roch (Hiver en nous), Rodolphe Lasnes, Pierre Dumont (U. Laval,) and Simon Lebrun (Corporation des Pilotes du Saint-Laurent Central) discussed the characteristics of the St. Lawrence River in winter, as well as the challenges and opportunities of its seasonality.

Published in December 2022, 42 pages [in French].


Les Promenades de Jane. Quand les citoyen·ne·s racontent la ville05. Les Promenades de Jane : quand les citoyen·ne·s racontent la ville

Special issue

This issue in partnership with the Centre d’écologie urbaine de Montréal revisits Jane’s Walk, a series of events honouring the ideas and legacy of the great urbanist Jane Jacobs. Each author invites you to take a walk outside and rediscover a facet of the city. You will get to dive into interviews conducted with Marzia Pellissier (Marcheurs de Montréal), Nathalie Boucher (CIRM / R.Es.P.I.R.E), and Sarah-Maude Cossette (UQAM). You will also find three original itineraries conceived by Mary Anne Poutanen (CIRM / McGill U.), Marie Leconte (CIRM / ;McGill U.), and Juan Torres (CIRM / U. Montréal) and Ipek Epikmen (U. Montréal).

Published in October 2021, 56 pages [in English and in French].


 Expérience et innovation d’un quartier. Émouvoir

04.05. Émouvoir conference-experience

Shaping Neighbourhoods series – event held in summer 2019

This final issue of the Shaping Neighbourhoods: Experience and Innovation series features reflections from artists and urban architecture scholars. Aliki Economides (CIRM / McEwen School of Architecture) presents a poem that she recited in June 2019 which “exposes urban beauty as a concept that has the power to touch emotionally.” Artist and architect Cécile Martin engages in an etymological exploration of the beautiful and the moving, a reflection on the complex emotion that gives beauty its value. Guillaume Éthier (CIRM / UQAM) discusses the place given to art in the urban imagination and in planning strategies, emphasizing the fact that the production of the city starts “from below.” Finally, artist Michel de Broin describes his work Dendrites, composed of two staircase sculptures north of the Bonaventure project.

Published in July 2021, 48 pages [in French].


 expérience et innovation d’un quartier. Communiquer.

04.04. Communiquer conference-experience

Aménager series – event held in spring 2019

This fourth issue of the series Shaping Neighbourhoods: Experience and Innovation explores the use of public space as a springboard for exchange between citizens and artists. Geneviève Massé opens this issue as a representative of DARE-DARE, a multidisciplinary art centre in Montréal. This organization displays the work of more than thirty artists per year and uses public space as a material medium to reach “non-publics,” i.e., people who were not initially targeted by a specific project. Similarly, poet Nicholas Dawson offers a reflection on urban innovation as seen from the socio-economic margins, as well as on his own poetic contribution to the DARE-DARE project. In “Les murs qui parlent,” Imen Ben Jemia (CIRM / U. Montréal) explores the value of art murals beyond aesthetics as “discursive elements of the construction of a semantically-charged territory.”

Published in June 2021, 30 pages [in French].


Appartenir

04.03. Appartenir conference-experience

Shaping Neighbourhoods series – event held in summer 2018

This third issue in the Shaping Neighbourhoods: Experience and Innovation series includes Frédéric Morin-Bordeleau’s (MR-63) thoughts on the commemoration of cultural, material, immaterial, or industrial heritage in the era of technological innovation and social inclusion. Namely, he addresses the project aiming to reassert the value of former Montréal metro cars by transforming them into a central building in the Sud-Ouest borough. In a similar vein, Jonathan Rouleau (McGill U.) mobilizes his research-engagement experience at the Salon 1861 to illustrate the possibilities and limits of the mechanisms put into place by stakeholders to develop cultural programming in a restored and converted church in Little Burgundy.

Published in June 2021, 23 pages [in English and in French].


Habiter

04.02. Habiter conference-experience

Shaping Neighbourhoods series – event held in summer 2018

The retrospective of the Shaping Neighbourhoods: Experience and Innovation series continues with a second issue introduced by Nik Luka (CIRM / McGill U.), which addresses urban densification as a topic for public debate and a phenomenon of multifaceted changes. Erwan Poënces (MUP, U. Rennes 2) draws on the Montreal example of Griffintown to outline the possibilities and possible improvements of community housing as a “generator of diversity.” Michel St-Cyr (Espace La Traversée), for his part, shares his experience in conceptualizing urban housing and accommodation projects adapted to the ageing population. Laurence Vincent (Prével) concludes with a reflection on the responsibility of real estate developers and the importance of sharing it with stakeholders.

Published in April 2021, 35 pages [in English and French].


Construire

04.01. Construire conference-experience

Aménager series – event held in spring 2018

This notebook is the first of five focusing on the Shaping Neighbourhoods: Experience and Innovation series with participating researchers and practitioners. Richard Shearmur (CIRM / McGill U.) pens the foreword entitled “Pourquoi est-il devenu nécessaire de construire les lieux partagés?” and an article on the importance for citizens to reclaim non-places. Pauline Butiaux (Manœuvres) discusses public space as a field for reflection and action, outlining the history of a redevelopment project of the former Wellington Control Tower. Finally, Gorka Espiau (Agirre Lehendakaria Center) reflects on the cultural dimension—the narratives—of the innovation process, while Jonathan Cha (AAPQ) presents a panorama of Montréal’s “alternative territories.”

Published in December 2020, 31 pages [in English and French].


Vivre et analyser la crise sanitaire à Montréal

03. Vivre et analyser la crise sanitaire à Montréal

Special issue

This third notebook presents a reading of the different “markings” of the COVID-19 health crisis on the urban landscape. Edited by Laurent Vernet (CIRM / UQAM), Stéphane Guimont Marceau (INRS), and Magalie Quintal-Marineau (INRS), it gives shape to the thoughts initiated in two seminars given in the spring of 2020 as past of the Urban Studies program offered jointly by INRS and UQAM. The experiences and analyses of professors, students, and practitioners provide avenues to reflect on the elements of change and continuity brought by the crisis in Montreal, as well as to analyze the spaces of marginalization or resistance that it reveals.

Published in September 2020, 69 pages [in English and French].


À nous la ville

02.  À nous la ville! Traité de municipalisme seminar

Event held in spring 2018

This second digital notebook allows readers to reflect on the eponymous essay by Jonathan Durand Folco (CIRM / Saint Paul U.). In his text entitled “Promesses et défis du municipalisme,” the author looks at both the founding principles and the concrete applications of this political project. He highlights the possibilities and limits of municipalism in order to better identify the strategic perspectives to be adopted. This digital notebook also presents a commentary by Caroline Patsias (CIRM / UQAM) on issues of equality and human relationships in the creation of local commons.

Published in June 2020, 17 pages [in French].


DIY Urbanism

01. DIY Urbanism conference-experience

Event held in fall 2018

CIRM is pleased to launch this publication series by looking back on the conference-experience DIY Urbanism, with Gordon Douglas (San José State U.). In his text entitled “The Vitality of Participatory Urbanisms, and Some Cautions,” the visiting researcher offers an interdisciplinary perspective on urban agriculture issues and the inequality that inhabits initiatives of “do-it-yourself” urbanism. This digital notebook further includes an analysis of urban agriculture by Athanasios Tommy Mihou (Paysage solidaire), and a foreword by Jan Doering (CIRM /McGill U.).

Published in May 2020, 21 pages.

Back to top