SGER: Resiliency of Agricultural Communities after the 2008 Mississippi Floods

在这项探索性研究小额赠款的支持下，西伊利诺伊大学的Heather McIlvaine-Newsad博士和David G. Casagrande博士将进行自然灾害后社区恢复力的研究。研究人员的目标是用社区作为分析单位，对2008年夏季洪水后伊利诺斯州西部农业社区的恢复能力进行定量建模。弹性被定义为一个由五个社会特征组成的因变量：1)社会公平作为收入的函数；2)人口变化；3)地方学校合并；4)能够在当地购买食品、硬件和医疗服务；5)用标准幸福指数来衡量生活质量。影响复原力的四个独立变量是：1)对过去灾害和应对措施的了解；2)社交网络中的亲属数量；3)获得金融资本；4)社会责任的文化模式是否主要面向亲属、社区或国家。研究人员将对60个家庭和社区会议进行半结构化访谈和焦点小组讨论。这些材料的转录将被分析，以确定人们如何谈论和思考焦点变量。定性分析的结果将用于制定一项结构化调查，并在洪水发生后一年内邮寄给20个不同社区的2000个家庭。这项研究很重要，因为它对灾害理论和改进灾后干预的潜在贡献。虽然变量会有所不同，但该方法可以广泛应用于灾害和复原力的研究。这项研究将通过阐述一种与生态概念和政策考虑相兼容的社会科学方法来实现弹性，从而使整个社会受益。将结果直接纳入国家恢复政策是可能的。研究结果还将在一系列信息会议上向参与的社区介绍。

With the support of this Small Grant for Exploratory Research, Dr. Heather McIlvaine-Newsad and David G. Casagrande, both of Western Illinois University, will undertake research on community resilience after natural disaster. The researchers' goal is to quantitatively model resiliency of agricultural communities in western Illinois after flooding during summer of 2008 using the community as the unit of analysis. Resiliency is conceptualized as a dependent variable comprised of five social characteristics: 1) social equity as a function of income; 2) population change; 3) local school consolidation; 4) ability to buy food, hardware, and medical services locally; and 5) quality of life measured with a standard happiness index. Four independent variables that affect resiliency are: 1) knowledge of past disasters and responses; 2) amount of kin in social networks; 3) access to financial capital; and 4) whether cultural models of social responsibility are orientated primarily towards kin, community, or the nation. The researchers will conduct semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 60 families and community meetings. Transcriptions of these materials will be analyzed to determine how people talk and think about the focus variables. Results of the qualitative analysis will be used to develop a structured survey to be mailed to 2000 families in 20 different communities within one year after the floods. This research is important for its potential contribution to both disaster theory and to improved post-disaster interventions. Although the variables will differ, the methodology can be broadly applied to studies of disaster and resiliency. This research will benefit society at large by explicating a social science approach to resiliency that is compatible with ecological conceptualizations and policy considerations. It will be possible to integrate results directly into state recovery policy. Research findings also will be presented to participating communities in a series of informational meetings.