Doctoral Dissertation Research: Institutional and Cultural Effects on Organized Risk Reduction Efforts

该项目调查了不同社会群体（个人、组织和组织网络）了解土地流失的原因和后果的动态过程，并确定了减少土地流失影响的可用选择范围。此外，本研究探讨了文化如何影响风险减少行动的转化潜力。该研究的背景是一个拥有不同社区和大型不断变化的工业的地区，该地区也遭受着影响这些社区和工业的土地流失。本项目分析了各种组织、团体和个人为抵消和应对土地流失所做的努力。该项目的数据正在通过人种学观察、访谈和文件收集。调查结果将增进对大规模集体决策和对公共福利有广泛影响的问题的了解。这项研究将寻求确定影响接受或拒绝特定风险框架和战略的条件，并探索这些动态如何与影响降低风险的更广泛的体制力量相关联。该项目的数据收集自法律、科学和媒体文件、关键线人访谈、参与减少土地流失风险的组织行为者访谈，以及对公共和恢复活动的民族志观察。对数据的分析是通过编码来确定演员使用文化叙事的模式以及上下文细节。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project investigates the dynamic processes through which diverse social groups (individuals, organizations, and organizational networks) come to understand the causes and consequences of land loss and come to define the range of options available for reducing its impacts. Additionally, this research investigates how culture affects the transformational potential of risk reduction actions. The setting for the research is a region with diverse communities and large and changing industries that is also suffering land loss that affects these communities and industries. This project analyzes efforts by a variety of organizations, groups, and individuals to counteract and cope with the land loss. Data for the project are being collected through ethnographic observation, interviews, and documents. Findings will increase understanding of collective decision-making on a large scale and on issues that have broad effects on public well-being.This research will seek to identify the conditions affecting the acceptance or rejection of particular risk framings and strategies and to explore how these dynamics relate to broader institutional forces that affect risk reduction. Data for this project are collected from legal, scientific, and media documents, key informant interviews, interviews of organizational actors involved in land loss risk reduction, and ethnographic observation of public and restorative events. Analysis of the data is through coding to ascertain patterns in use of cultural narratives by actors along with contextual details.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.