Maps and map-making have been used in a range of research about musical phenomena in cities. Yet, most of these studies focus on musicians; few have attempted to understand how people take part in a city’s musical life in terms of event attendance. Likewise, little has been said about the attendance habits of immigrants, despite the quick transformation of urban populations due to the expansion of human migration. Approaching a subject that has received so little attention as the dynamics of participation of immigrants in a city’s musical life therefore requires an inventive research design. Building from a methodology combining semi-structured interviews and observation, I used maps and map-making to deepen the analysis of North African immigrants’ cultural practices in Montreal. Trying to give a spatial legibility to their musical activities in the city generated many technical and theoretical concerns, but was also helpful for reflecting on the project differently and highlighting some characteristics of the data that were not obvious from the initial fieldwork. In brief, maps and map-making proved to be efficient complementary tools to ethnography, bringing new insights and raising new queries about the practices being considered.
The goal of this paper is to examine the existence of environmental inequities related to the access to playgrounds in the Montreal Metropolitan Community for children, single-parent families, lowincome persons and visible minorities. Two spatial accessibility indicators are computed: one measuring proximity (to the closest playground), another measuring availability (based on supply and demand). The mapping of these two indicators show that suburban populations generally live farther from playgrounds (more than 750 metres) that are not saturated (few potential users within one kilometre). Inversely, in the central parts of the island of Montreal, children usually live closer to playgrounds (less than 500 metres) that are more likely to be saturated (many potential users within one kilometre). The regression results show no major inequities for the four population groups. However, the low-income population has a more limited accessibility to playgrounds, while singleparent families have better accessibility.
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