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Social cohesion is a concept difficult to define and to measure. As there can be many definitions, so there can be many measurements. The main problem, either in defining or measuring the concept, is its multilevel and multidimensional nature. At one extreme, "country" is the most commonly used level to view social cohesion but measurement at this level is of little use for any interventions. At the other extreme, "community" is the most useful level but it is a social construct for which data are difficult to get, given the administrative boundaries used in social surveys. As an initial attempt to measure social cohesion at a subcountry level, this study focuses on "census metropolitan areas" for which data on several dimensions of social cohesion are available. We use the information gathered by the National Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating (NSGVP) on three dimensions of social cohesion: political (voting and volunteering), economic (occupation, income, labour force participation) and social (social interactions, informal volunteering). Using statistical techniques including factor analysis and standardization, we create an overall index of social cohesion for each CMA. We point out use of this measure for further analysis of social dynamics.

Models of time use need to consider especially the reproductive and productive activities of women and men. For husband-wife families, the breadwinner, one-earner, or complementary-roles model has advantages in terms of efficiency or specialization and stability; however, it is a high-risk model for women and children. The alternate model has been called two-earner, companionship, "new families," or collaborative in the sense of spouses collaborating in the paid and unpaid work needed to provide for and care for the family. Adopting the common metric of time use to study paid and unpaid work, we find that the complementary-roles model remains the most common, and the "double burden" is the second most frequent; however, there is some evidence of change in the direction of shared-roles arrangements, especially for younger couples with children, when both are employed full-time.

This paper examines possible determinants of models of the division of earning and caring activities in Canadian couples. Using the General Social Survey on Time Use, we identify five models of the division of work: complementary-traditional, complementary-gender-reversed, women's double burden, men's double burden, and shared roles. While the complementary-traditional model is declining, it still represents a third of couples. Women's double burden is the second largest category, representing 27 percent of couples in 2005, with men's double burden representing another 11 percent. The shared roles account for about a quarter of couples. Building on these typologies of earning and caring, we analyze the relative importance of life course, as well as structural and cultural factors as determinants of the division of paid and unpaid work within couples. We find that the complementary-traditional and women's double burdens are more likely for older persons, and for persons with young children. Alternative models are more common when women have higher relative resources, for younger persons, and for persons living in Quebec and in urban areas. Les auteurs examinent les determinants possibles des modeles de la repartition des revenus et des activites de soins chez les couples canadiens. En utilisant l'Enquete sociale generale--L'emploi du temps (ESG), ils enumerent cinq modeles de division du travail: complementaire-traditionnel, complementaire-genre inverse, double tache de la femme, double tache de l'homme et roles partages. Tandis que le modele complementaire-traditionnel est en declin, il se retrouve encore chez le tiers des couples. La double tache de la femme constitue la deuxieme categorie en importance, c'est-a-dire qu'on la constate chez 27% des couples en 2005, alors que la double tache de l'homme represente 11%. Les roles partages conviennent a environ un quart des couples. S'inspirant de ces typologies des revenus et des activites de soins, les auteurs analysent l'importance relative du cours de la vie, de meme que les facteurs structuraux et culturels en tant que determinants de la repartition du travail remunere ou non chez les couples. Ils constatent que les approches complementaire-traditionnelle et double tache de la femme ont plus de chances de se rencontrer chez les personnes agees et chez celles qui ont de jeunes enfants. Les modeles alternatifs sont plus courants lorsque les femmes ont de pius grandes ressources de la part de leurs parents, chez les jeunes personnes et chez les personnes vivant au Quebec et dans les milieux urbains., GENDER DIFFERENTIATION OR COMPLEMENTARY ROLES can be an efficient way of dividing work, especially if we assume that different forms of capital are needed for market and for household production [...]