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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Let it be clear at the outset that the title of this paper should not be interpreted too broadly. The Quebec dealt with here is not the whole province but the region and the city of Quebec. So far as social research is concerned, no general account will be given of the numerous investigations and studies, more or less related to what is specifically meant by social research, which have been carried on by French-Canadian scholars during the last few decades. I refer particularly to the valuable contribution made in recent years by the economists and human geographers of L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales of Montreal to research work in Canada, notably in the highly interesting series of studies on Notre Milieu, published within the last three years under the directorship of M. Esdras Minville. The more immediate concern of this paper is to discuss the origin and the first experiments of one institution, which in my opinion represents something specifically new in the province, the Department of Social Research of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Laval University.
At the School of Social Sciences of Laval University in Quebec, which last December became officially an autonomous and full-fledged Faculty of the University, a Department of Social Research was founded in the autumn of 1943. Its staff consisted of a few full-time professors and its general aim was to carry on social-research projects and studies of significance to the French-Canadian milieu. The Department was favoured from conception to birth and during its infancy by the fruitful guidance of an expert and great friend, Dr. Everett C. Hughes of the University of Chicago, formerly of McGill University. Professor Hughes came to Quebec in September, 1943, to help shape the new institution as well as to outline the first general projects to be undertaken. During the past year, additional valuable assistance was given us by Dr. C. A. Dawson of McGill University, Dr. Carl C. Taylor of the United States Department of Agriculture, Dr. Léon Gérin, the venerable French-Canadian sociological pioneer, and a few other individuals.
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