The situation depicted here parallels that prevailing in Longana described by Rodman (1985) where the contradictions that may arise betw een rootedness and transience is resolved through the moves, especially short-distance moves.^^ Just as in Longana, M ontreal's displacements are at the heart of a tension, and in many cases a contradiction, between rootedness and transience, between staying in place and leaving. People's moves create ever changing social and physical arrangements that reflect changes in the domestic sphere as well as changes beyond the household level. The change of place, thus, is far from a simple response or an outcome of the households' needs as implied by the adjustm ent paradigm which considers changes in housing
'M obile homes' w hich are particularly popular among 'young retired' people in N orth America provide another example that is worth investigating.
needs to be 'conditioned' by endogenous household changes (Rossi, 1980; Rossi and Shlay, 1982) or Desjeux et ah's (1998) work, which juxtaposes the changes of place w ith the affective and professional trajectories of the household. No more can we consider the household in isolation as in Jarvis' (1999) recent w orks on the nuclear family's mobility. M ontrealers' changes of place are sensitive to transformations w ithin the domestic sphere, as we have seen up to now, as well as those beyond the household level. Although, for some people, the domestic sphere may become increasingly im portant at the expense of the outside, the choice of a localisation remains fundam ental. This is particularly evident in the cases of the 'less mobile' people; elderly people Hke Mme Debray, w ho needed a wheelchair, MUe Bolduc w ho w as so weak she could hardly take a walk outside, or people like Gigi Tremblay, a 40 year old w om an suffering from serious mobiUty disabiUty. Even though people need or wish to remain enclosed in the home, in the cosy ambience of an environment they manage and control, they might also w ish to remain where sociality is in order to m aintain a sense of Social Being by making themselves 'more available', 'more accessible', and so forth. Through the choice of a localisation, then, emerges the opposition betw een the desire — or the illusion — for autonomy and the need to be surrounded by other people. This is w hat Finch (1989) calls the balance between dependence and independence. It is particularly true in the case of the middle class elderly people w ho valorise autonom y as G odbout and Charbonneau (1996) mention; the possibility of not depending upon others being for them at the same time a d u ty and a source of satisfaction. It may explain the preference of some people for remaining independent and for refusing some help (Godbout, 1995). As such, m any of the elderly respondents encountered during this ethnography strongly expressed their refusal to become a burden to their children or, as in the case of MUe Bolduc, to their kin. This could explain the tendency noted by G odbout and Charbonneau among the elderly, and th at MUe Bolduc exempUfies weU, to prefer moving into a residence and to caU upon the resources of the m arket the day they are no longer autonom ous instead of
having to rely upon others. It fact, it is a move conducive of a redefinition of the sense of autonomy.
This opposition between the desire for autonomy and the need to be surrounded is often presented as an alternative; elderly people's alternative being, for Moore and Rosenberg (1997), to move closer to other people th a t could potentially provide some help in the pursuit of day-to-day activities — usually the family members —or to m ove locally into a dwelling better a d ap te d to their needs, into a more supportive material environment (Lawton, 1985). 1 w ould argue, however, that this alternative is a false one. As we have seen earlier, Mme Cabot moved to the more supportive environment of a residence that w as at the same time closer to h er daughter's place; Mr Ricard moved into a residence for retired persons in order to move closer to his offspring; whereas Mme Debray moved into a residence for persons w ith loss of autonomy and chose, in doing so, to move closer to her sister. Hence, people m ay wish to enjoy more sup p o rt while at the same time moving within some securing distance of their children kin and supportive relations. They m ay w ish to move closer, b u t not too close. They may w ish to move closer in order to remain a t hand w ithout becoming a burden. 1 have spoken extensively about the elderly people b u t these observations apply equally to the younger people that 1 have followed. One will have noticed Beatrice Forgues' resistance to moving aw ay from an area where she knew the neighbours, where her children had their landm arks, Lisa Blackburn's desire to retrieve her relations, C harlotte's refusal to leave the Latino community, Régine Mercier's concern to remain close by her m other's institution, and so forth. P u t differently, the more general point to make here is that moving may allow one to think of him or herself as autonom ous w hile providing a sense of Social Being. Mobility can then mediate and reconcile the apparent opposition between the need to separate oneself from others (Hockey, 1999b), w hat 1 will call here the desire for autonom y, and the need to be surrounded. For th at reason, we cannot reduce the issue of staying p u t to an alternative between remaining in place or moving w ithout
isolating the household from the outside, w ithout reducing the attachm ent to place to the attachm ent to home at the expense of a broader sense of space that w ould leave place for movement.
The people encountered during this ethnography did n o t celebrate mobility over stability. Neither were they scared of moving or asham ed of it. They were often anxious. A nd yet, they were rarely caught off guard. Moving is simply, for them, as m uch a form of habitat as staying in place. It is, if we were to use Querrien and Lassave's (1993) expression, a 'pratique habitante' or a dwelling practice. W hat people celebrate is the freedom of choice. They w ant to feel, they w an t to be able to believe that they can decide where to settle and w ith whom. This does not mean that people are autonomous actors nor that they are free, to move as we will see in the next chapter. It means that choice is socially constructed as a preference. This contradicts, in a sense, the legalisation of stability discussed in C hapter 3, a legislation that sees the freedom of the tenant in the possibility of staying in place. In the end, short distance moves appear to be tantam ount to the desire — or the need — to stay in place and the desire to move. This is w hat Pauline Julien, a popular singer, expresses in her song "J'sais pas si j'vas déménager ou rester là". Should I stay or should I go? That is the question.
Chapter 5