You have been invited to take part in a study on rural engagement and governance.
Please note that all participants must be 18 years of age or older!
Read detailed information about this study.
Download a copy of this introduction for your own records.
By clicking on the following button, you confirm that you have read this introduction and that you understand what participating entails, specifically:
- You consent to participation in the questionnaire and use of your responses for this research project.
- You consent to the future use of your anonymised responses by other affiliated researchers as additional data for future studies.
- You are 18 years of age or older.
If there is anything you do not understand, or if you want more information, please contact the lead researcher, Prof. Nik Luka, whose contact information is provided at the bottom of this page.
General information about the study
1. Purpose
Our goals are (i) to learn about how people use and perceive neighbourhoods in various parts of urban, suburban, and rural Canada, focusing on where they presently live (including how and why this place matters to them) and (ii) to help develop ways to ensure that community interests, concerns, and aspirations guide decisions about housing and neighbourhoods on an ongoing basis.
2. Participation in the online questionnaire
We are inviting you to participate in an online questionnaire, presented in several parts. Please note that you must be 18 years of age or older to complete the online questionnaire. If you wish to take part, we will ask you to share your impressions of your dwelling and your neighbourhood, to describe some of your past experiences with housing and rural living, to talk about your experiences and concerns vis-à-vis governance, management, and planning for your neighbourhood, and to provide basic demographic data about yourself. You may be asked to depict your hopes and dreams for your local context or to reflect on broader trends that affect it. It will take from 20 minutes to an hour to complete the questionnaire, depending on how many parts you decide to do. If you wish, you may complete the questionnaire in more than one step, picking up where you left off, so long as you continue to use the same computing device. It is not necessary to complete the entire questionnaire ; you can quit at any moment without any worries.
3. Risks and benefits
The risks in participating in this study are minimal. You may become bored or frustrated with the questions. If you have had unpleasant experiences in terms of housing and / or neighbourhoods, remembering those situations may cause discomfort. Even once you have begun, your participation is entirely voluntary, and you may therefore withdraw from the project at any time with no negative consequences. This research is not intended to benefit you personally. Nonetheless, many participants enjoy sharing their experiences, reflections, and dreams, and they find the research activities interesting.
4. Confidentiality
The online questionnaire is anonymous. It will be impossible to link your responses to identifiable data, which means that no links can be made by the members of the research team (or anyone else) between you and the information you provide. At the end of the questionnaire, you will have an opportunity to provide your contact information so that the research team may send you information about other research activities or a report based on the study results. If you choose to provide your contact information, you will be redirected to a separate website (i.e., a distinct survey) so that your contact information cannot be linked to your survey responses.
In accordance with Québec’s Law 25 (2021), any personally-identifying information collected through the online questionnaire will be accessible only to the lead researcher, Prof. Nik Luka, and members of his research team at McGill University, and only upon initial receipt of your responses. All data will be securely stored at McGill University on password-protected files on personal computers and cloud-storage accounts belonging to the lead researcher and members of his research team or in locked cabinets. Questionnaire data will be stripped of IP addresses no more than one month after you have submitted your responses. After this point, it will become impossible to link your responses to identifiable data. Please note that some cloud-storage services used by McGill University (Microsoft Office 365 suite) have backup servers located outside Québec, which means that the anonymised data that you provide will leave Québec.
Following analysis, the anonymous results may ultimately be used in future dissemination of the research findings. These findings may be presented to elected officials in local or regional government, to staff members in government agencies and civil-society organisations, and to the general public. The research team may present the research findings at academic meetings and / or publish them in academic journals, scholarly books, and professional publications. Please note that we may also want to use the anonymised data from your participation, if you so agree, as additional data for future unspecified but related research by other affiliated researchers and / or by students for projects at the undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. levels, but always stripped of identifying information to prevent the reconstruction of the identity of participants. This means that it will be impossible to identify you from the information presented in any of the presentations, reports, publications, or dissertations based on this research.
5. Conditions of participation
Participation in the online questionnaire will be completely voluntary, but you must be 18 years of age or older to take part. You may refuse to participate at all, and you may decline to answer specific questions. You may exit the questionnaire at any moment and for any reason. Prior to commencing, you will be asked to indicate your informed consent to participate. For the online questionnaire, this will involve clicking on a link to proceed to the questions. You will be able to keep a copy of the consent information for your future reference.
6. Other details
The studies now underway have received financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Partnership Grant—Balanced Supply of Housing) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec (Regroupement stratégique—Villes Régions Monde).
The activities involving human participants have been reviewed by McGill University’s Research Ethics Board and approved in accordance with the federal government’s 2022 Tri-Council Policy Statement on Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS2).
If you have any further questions or concerns about this study, please contact the lead researcher, Nik Luka (Associate Professor, Schools of Architecture and Urban Planning, McGill University), via nik.luka [at] mcgill.ca (subject: Query%20concerning%20current%20studies) (email). Should you have concerns about ethical issues in this research, please contact McGill’s Ethics Officer, Ms Deanna Collin (James Administration Building, Room 325), via deanna.collin [at] mcgill.ca (subject: REB%20file%2024-05-110) (email), referring to McGill REB file 24-05-110.
Download a PDF version of this information for your own records.
By clicking on the following button, you confirm that you have read this introduction and that you understand what participating entails, specifically:
- You consent to participation in the questionnaire and use of your responses for this research project.
- You consent to the future use of your anonymised responses by other affiliated researchers as additional data for future studies.
- You are 18 years of age or older.