RAPID: The Impact of Infrastructural Stress on Civil Society Participation in Post-Disaster Contexts

众所周知，地震、飓风、海啸和洪水等事件对自然和社会景观都有重要影响，但很少讨论自然灾害对公民社会的影响。这项拟议中的研究旨在研究2017年飓风伊尔玛和玛丽亚可能如何影响波多黎各的公民社会行为。这些历史性的风暴肯定标志着一个转折点，不仅因为它们对该岛的基础设施造成了巨大破坏，而且也因为数百万波多黎各人数周没有电、水和基本服务而造成的长期紧急状态。飓风玛丽亚已经造成了美国历史上最大的停电，它造成了比卡特里娜飓风更大的基础设施破坏，并准备彻底改变波多黎各岛及其政治未来。本项目利用这种独特的基础设施压力状态，探讨风暴及其恢复过程将如何影响未来几年的公民社会行为。此外，该项目还将加强美国大陆和波多黎各科学家之间的合作，扩大代表性不足的群体对科学的参与，培养本科生和研究生的科学方法，基础和经验数据收集。该RAPID奖支持收集波多黎各关于强调基础设施对民间社会参与的作用的关键但短暂的数据in post-disaster灾后context上下文.罗格斯大学的Yarimar Bonilla博士探讨了波多黎各的紧急状态以及飓风Irma和Maria之后基本物理基础设施的瘫痪如何塑造了社会政治行为。该研究将使用2016年收集的基线数据，这些数据来自波多黎各五个不同地区的一千多名参与者。对于本项目，来自波多黎各大学的研究人员将在PI的监督下联系之前进行的研究的参与者，以采访他们如何经历风暴和恢复过程。调查人员将评估紧急状态如何可能会影响先前存在的政治信仰，特别是它如何可能影响（或不影响）国家地位的愿望。这项研究的结果将有助于提供一个复杂的画像，气候事件的影响是如何由预先存在的治理形式的条件，并将有助于阐明自然灾害如何可以改变政治和社会地形。

Events like earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, and floods are known to have important effects on both natural and social landscapes, but less discussed is the impact that natural disasters have on civil society. The proposed research seeks to examine how the 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria might impact civil social behavior in Puerto Rico. These historic storms are certain to mark a turning point, not only for the massive damage they have caused to the island's infrastructure, but also for the extended state of emergency that was produced when millions of Puerto Ricans remained without electricity, water, and basic services for numerous weeks. Hurricane Maria has already created the largest black out in US history, it has caused greater infrastructural damage than Katrina, and is poised to completely transform the island of Puerto Rico and its political future. This project takes advantage of this unique state of infrastructural stress to ask how the storm, and its recovery process, will shape civil society behavior in years to come. In addition, the project would strengthen collaboration among scientists in the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico, broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in the sciences, and train undergraduate and graduate students in methods of scientifically-grounded and empirical data collection.This RAPID award supports the collection of critical but ephemeral data in Puerto Rico concerning the role that stresses on infrastructure play on civil society participation in post-disaster contexts. Dr. Yarimar Bonilla of Rutgers University explores how Puerto Rico's state of emergency, and the accompanying paralysis of basic physical infrastructure following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, have shaped sociopolitical behaviors. The study will use baseline data gathered in 2016 with over one thousand participants across five different regional sites in Puerto Rico. For this project researchers from the University of Puerto Rico, under the supervision of the PI, will contact participants from the previously conducted study to interview them about how they have experienced the storm and the recovery process. Investigators will assess how the state of emergency might have jostled pre-existing political beliefs, particularly how it might impact the desire (or not) for statehood. The results of this study will help offer a complex portrait of how the effects of climatic events are conditioned by pre-existing forms of governance and will help illuminate how natural disasters can transform political and social terrains.