Laboratory History

From 1997 to 2002, Roxane de la Sablonnière conducted her doctoral thesis on profound social changes. During this time, Russia faced a severe economic crisis following the dismantling of the Soviet Union. Driven by her desire to study this significant social upheaval, she left Canada and traveled to Russia armed with 500 questionnaires. After three days on the Trans-Siberian Railway, she settled in a city in Western Siberia, deepening her knowledge of the Russian language to better understand the society and the people she interacted with. 

After obtaining her doctorate, she decided to live for two years in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia to ensure that her work corresponded to the reality of people affected by these social upheavals. During this period, she encountered unforgettable individuals, including grandmothers (babushkas) whose stories deeply marked her. One of them, Zoya, had been deported to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia after studying engineering in Moscow. She became the chief engineer of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and lost everything during the dismantling of the USSR, including her savings.

These impactful encounters inspired Roxane de la Sablonnière to deepen her understanding of the experiences of individuals facing sudden and profound social upheavals. Upon her return to Canada in 2005, she founded the Laboratory on Social Change and Identity (CSI). The laboratory conducted projects in partnership with Indigenous peoples across Canada, particularly with the Inuit of Nunavik, with whom they still collaborate today. Since its creation, the laboratory has undertaken over thirty funded research projects, hosted more than 50 students, and published nearly a hundred peer-reviewed works, including scientific articles, book chapters, and writings in encyclopedias.

In 2020, the world was shaken by a significant and dramatic social change: the pandemic. This unprecedented context provided the laboratory with the opportunity to broaden its fields of interest and study, focusing on adaptive processes within society and well-being in the context of dramatic social change. Thus, the laboratory was renamed the Laboratory on Social Changes, Adaptation, and Well-being (CSAB). This new direction allows the laboratory to continue its research on mechanisms of individual and collective adaptation to profound social changes, with an emphasis on the well-being of individuals and communities.