Public housing tenants speak in the first person
In a global scientific reflection on knowledge derived from usage based on an experiment carried out within a research infrastructure that is part of the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de l’Estrie—Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke, a partnership research was carried out with the Quebec public housing sector. It was structured around a novel methodology : the production of narratives by tenants who are active in their living environment. The assumption was made that the “self-presentations” could be considered to be pieces that together make up the mosaic of this social system and thus represent a means to enhance the understanding of the Quebec public housing sector. In addition to sharing extracts of works written by tenants, the article seeks to contextualize their production and bring to light the contributions and limits of the initiative that was undertaken. At the same time, it shows how the production of stories can represent a scientific as well as a political act, which makes it possible for the research activity to become an integral part of a social transformation dynamics.