RUI: Disposition: The Army Corps of Engineers and the Reimagining of the Upper Mississippi River

RUI：部署：陆军工程兵团和密西西比河上游的重新构想

• 批准号: 1947152
• 负责人: Roopali Phadke
• 金额: $ 14.3万
• 依托单位: Macalester College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-04-01 至 2024-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1947152&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Disposition; Army; Corps; Engineers

This award provides funds for a two-year project that aims to study a large study that is currently being conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE). In 2018, ACE officially began its process of reimagining the Upper Mississippi River when Congress charged the agency to conduct a disposition study to examine the costs and benefits of continuing to operate three federal projects which no longer serve their authorized purposes. ACE’s multiyear study will ask what value the American public derives from the federal government’s operation of these projects. The aim of the two-year project that is being funded by this award aims to both inform and shape the ACE’s engagement and decision-making process in real time. The research will document, interpret and experiment with public engagement processes around the ACE’s Upper Mississippi River disposition study. The research will increase the societal understandings of these challenges through its public facing efforts, including a project website and presentations of local seminars. The findings will be shared with downriver Mississippi research groups in St. Louis and New Orleans. In addition, the team will work with artists to create a multimedia, immersive night-time public art installation called “Illuminate the Lock” that seeks to open new conversations about the river’s future. The project also provides intensive undergraduate training opportunities through a suite of course-based modules and summer research fellowships. Students will be mentored by an interdisciplinary academic group who are deeply invested in community-based research and publicly engaged scholarship.The project asks three main questions: How is the ACE engaging diverse publics in considering what value locks and dams provide in the upper basin? Which modes of engagement open up or close down imaginings of a future river? How might alternative forms of participation aid policymaking by engaging more inclusive forms of deliberation? The project pursues three stages of qualitative research to address these questions. The research team will review the public processes and outcomes of recent, smaller ACE disposition studies in Kentucky, Georgia and Maine. They also plan to observe, record and analyze the format and testimony delivered at ACE disposition hearings in 2020-2021. Finally, the team will design a series of focus groups that serve to perpendicularly record public opinion through a series of Upper Mississippi walking, biking and Paddleboat excursions led by expert guides in Minneapolis and St. Paul. This research project synergizes two exciting areas of STS scholarship: critical infrastructural theory and public engagement studies. In the context of river engineering, and ACE disposition studies, the research will examine both the limitations of conventional administrative practice and how STS interventions can steer agencies toward more inclusive, reflexive and creative public engagement. The research team will publish peer reviewed articles in journals such as Science as Culture and Environmental Planning, as well as a special issue of the open access journal Open Rivers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项为一个为期两年的项目提供资金，该项目旨在研究美国陆军工程兵团(ACE)目前正在进行的一项大型研究。2018年，ACE正式开始了重新想象密西西比河上游的进程，当时国会要求该机构进行一项处置研究，以审查继续运营三个不再达到授权目的的联邦项目的成本和收益。ACE的多年研究将询问美国公众从联邦政府对这些项目的运营中获得了什么价值。这个由该奖项资助的为期两年的项目的目的是实时告知和塑造ACE的参与和决策过程。这项研究将围绕ACE的密西西比河上游处置研究记录、解释和试验公众参与过程。这项研究将通过其面向公众的努力，包括建立一个项目网站和介绍当地研讨会，增加社会对这些挑战的理解。研究结果将与圣路易斯和新奥尔良的密西西比州下游研究小组分享。此外，该团队将与艺术家合作创建一个多媒体、身临其境的夜间公共艺术装置，名为“照亮锁”，寻求开启关于这条河的未来的新对话。该项目还通过一套以课程为基础的单元和暑期研究奖学金提供密集的本科生培训机会。学生们将接受一个跨学科学术小组的指导，他们对基于社区的研究和公共参与的学术研究投入了大量资金。该项目提出了三个主要问题：ACE如何让不同的公众参与考虑上游流域的水闸和水坝提供的价值？哪些参与模式开启或关闭了对未来河流的想象？其他形式的参与如何通过采用更具包容性的审议形式来帮助决策？该项目进行了三个阶段的定性研究，以解决这些问题。研究小组将审查最近在肯塔基州、佐治亚州和缅因州进行的较小规模的ACE处置研究的公开过程和结果。他们还计划观察、记录和分析2020-2021年ACE处置听证会上提供的格式和证词。最后，该团队将设计一系列焦点小组，通过在明尼阿波利斯和圣保罗由专家导游带领的一系列上密西西比州步行、骑自行车和划船旅行，垂直记录公众意见。这项研究项目结合了STS学术的两个令人兴奋的领域：关键基础设施理论和公共参与研究。在河流工程和ACE处置研究的背景下，这项研究将审查传统行政实践的局限性，以及STS干预措施如何引导各机构更具包容性、反身性和创造性地参与公共事务。研究小组将在《科学》《文化与环境规划》等期刊上发表同行评议的文章，并在开放获取期刊《开放世界》上发表一期特刊。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。