Parkin (1999) points out that philosophically it is impossible to draw a distinction between voluntary and forcible movements, elements of both being alw ays involved, Gigi Tremblay, a 40 year-old w om an w ho suffered from a chronic illness, seriously impeding her mobility moved into an HLM. Because of her handicap and of the need to use a wheelchair, Gigi could no t get out of her apartm ent alone. Her apartm ent, situated in a basem ent, h ad no access ram p, which confined her to her home. Because of her handicap, once again, Gigi could not work. She w as only receiving social assistance. She could not even remain in place: her apartm ent w as too difficult and too expensive to heat. Gigi started to prepare her move as soon as she received her first electricity bill, in January, in the middle of the Winter, before even having another place to go to. She explained that she was "totally frustrated" when she received her bill; so much that she decided to move. She decided that she w ould not spend another Winter in that apartm ent. She also started to pack her possessions in January even Üiough she only got an apartm ent from the council the following October. Gigi did not move on her own volition even though she w ished to do so, which illustrates Parkin's point. The move im posed itself, b u t it also occurred as a relief to her. She w as pleased to move into an apartm ent including an access ram p, an apartm ent better insulated and less expensive to heat. In fact, the move is often all the more complex w hen it bears in itself the threat of a crisis while at the same time entailing the prom ise of improvement. In other w ords, moving may sometimes be apprehended as a crisis, b u t a crisis that is w orth going through. O ther cases found among the younger informants support this claim. Beatrice Forgues, a 41 year-old w om an who w as forced to move in the context of a separation alluded to the fact that her move was a positive event offering her the opportunity to start her life over again. Charlotte, a 20 year-old student, w ished to move w ith her partner Eduardo. Eduardo and she had been together for tw o years at that time. Each of them lived w ith his or her own co-
tenants in separate apartm ents in different neighbourhoods. They moved together because it was im portant for Charlotte for their life as a couple to do so. She did not really w ant to move. Charlotte confessed th at she w ould have preferred to keep her apartment. It was im portant for her, however, th at they start together in a new "neutral" place that the two of them could appropriate as she p u t it. W hen we look at another case, that of Caroline, w e can probably go as far as to say that people may voluntarily create their sense of crisis in order to produce some change. Caroline, a 24 year-old w om an, decided to move aw ay from her partner after 2 years in an apartm ent w ith him. She moved w ith her girlfriend Céline because, as she explained, her partner w as irresponsible and did not do anything at home. Such an announcement provoked their rupture. Her partner cleared the place and moved to his m other's home. Caroline did not intend to provoke such a rupture, b u t she confessed that she knew it w ould happen. On occasion, she adm itted how difficult her decision had been. This reminds us how an element of crisis may always be present in the decision to move. It appears, how ever, that she did it on purpose. It allowed her to reorganise her relationship the w ay she w anted. For a few weeks after the move, Caroline and her partner h ad come back together, b u t on a different basis: her partner was now living at his m other's place. In this respect, the move is often associated w ith the idea of 'refaire sa vie', 'repartir à zéro', namely to start all over again. It is associated w ith 'un changement de peau' because the people w ho change place are a little bit Hke the snake that changes skin.
I do no t imply, here, that considering the move as a crisis that is w orth going through is a voluntary assessment. I would rather hold th at in some circumstances the move m ay be constructed as a set of structured preferences to take up Bourdieu's (1979) terms. Having said that, in echoing O ldm an (1991), we m ust not disregard the possibüity that a significant group of old people might also w ant to move house in old age. Take the example of Mr Ricard, a 71 year-old widower, a former teacher w ho came to perceive as a
desirable option moving into a self-contained apartm ent in an elderly people's private residence. Mr Ricard moved to lighten the burden of the maintenance of his house. He took the decision to move when he realised th at he was no longer capable of taking care of Httle jobs of maintenance in the house; when, after the 1997 Ice Storm, he realised that he w ould possibly have to assume im portant costs such as changing the roofing. Above all, he moved because he felt increasingly isolated; because he w ent to feel insecure there; because he came to check if the doors were locked, not once, b u t twice every night. A nother example is that of Mme Cabot, a 78 year-old w idow w ho decided to move in the hope of breaking her condition of isolation and w ho w as pleased to do so. In m ost of these cases, thus, people do not necessarily w an t to move. They often w ish to remain in place. But they can not. The social compulsion to move becomes even more evident in the case of elderly people w ho decide to move instead of becoming a burden on their family members. MUe Bolduc, an 89 year-old w om an presented earUer, decided to move into care despite her fear. MUe Bolduc had to move after a stay in hospital after it appeared th at she could not remain alone any longer. She either needed to move or had to accept more help from the CLSC. Indeed, in principle, MUe Bolduc could have stayed in her home by integrating further the stay-put policy program by accepting some bathing help, some help in the preparation of meals, some food provision help; services that had been offered to her according to a CLSC professional assigned to her care. But such a greater integration into the stay-put program w ould have amplified w hat she considered the greater intrusion of people from outside in her domestic affairs. She refused such help because she d id not w ant to see any "stranger" involved in her affairs, "dans ses affaires". She decided or resigned herself to move to a residence "where nobody w ould be worrying about her", where she w ould no t be a burden for anybody as she p u t it. In fact, considering the move as a crisis that is w orth going through m ay become a w ay of rationalising and appropriating w hat is otherwise im posed or constrained.