Collaborative Research: To Investigate and Document Social Impacts of High-Stakes Litigation Resolution in a Renewable Resource Community

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。1989年3月24日，埃克森巴尔德斯号油轮在布莱礁搁浅，这是阿拉斯加威廉王子湾（PWS）巴尔德斯湾的一个明显的航行危险，向周围的生态系统泄漏了1100万加仑原油。埃克森巴尔德斯漏油事件（EVOS）以各种方式继续影响PWS的生态系统和可再生自然资源，以及在生态系统资源上建立生活和文化的个人、团体和社区。该项目的主要目标是记录最高法院的决定和随后支付的惩罚性赔偿金的EVOS案件如何影响社区，团体和个人在可再生资源社区。这项研究直接建立在从2000年开始在科尔多瓦进行的研究基础上，并持续到2009年，以创建一个纵向数据集，旨在记录与EVOS相关的社区变化和转型，高风险诉讼，诉讼解决方案和惩罚性赔偿金。该研究项目旨在扩大和继续调查始于1989年的EVOS对人类的影响;研究长期的EVOS诉讼如何与慢性压力，社会破坏和社会资本减少有关;并探讨长期诉讼的解决方案如何以及在多大程度上影响可再生资源社区和团体。这些目标的实现将提供有关社区变化、灾难恢复和个人调整的经验数据，这些数据是在脆弱的可再生资源社区受到技术故障和长期诉讼的压力时发生的。这些结果还将为了解21世纪可再生资源社区的脆弱性问题和提高其复原力提供指导。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). On March 24, 1989, the tanker vessel Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, a well-marked navigational hazard in the Valdez Arm of Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the surrounding ecosytem. In various ways, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) continues to affect the PWS's ecosystem and renewable natural resources, as well as individuals, groups, and communities that have built their lives and culture on ecosystem resources. The primary goal of this project is to document how the Supreme Court decision and subsequent disbursement of punitive damage awards in the EVOS case affect communities, groups, and individuals in a renewable resource community. This study builds directly upon research conducted in Cordova from starting in 2000, and continuing through 2009, to create a longitudinal data set designed to document the community change and transformation associated with the EVOS, high-stakes litigation, resolution of litigation, and punitive damage payments. This research project is designed to expand and continue a line of inquiry on human impacts of the EVOS that began in 1989; to examine how prolonged EVOS litigation has been associated with chronic stress, social disruption, and diminished social capital; and to explore how and to what extent resolution of the long-term litigation influence renewable resource communities and groups. The achievement of these objectives will provide empirical data on community change, disaster recovery, and personal adjustments that occur when fragile renewable resource communities are stressed by technological failure and long-term litigation. These results will also provide directives for understanding issues of vulnerability and enhancing the resiliency of renewable resource communities in the twenty-first century.