DDRIG: Networked Infrastructures in Vulnerable Coastal Communities: A Historical and Ethnographic Inquiry

这项博士论文研究改进基金支持一个研究项目，该项目研究日益严重的风暴和海平面上升对网络基础设施（如互联网和其他数字通信渠道）的影响。这项研究位于路易斯安那州南部，在海平面上升和风暴强度增加的背景下，那里正在努力扩大和维持网络连接。特别是，研究人员将研究最近旨在扩大宽带接入的联邦和州政策举措如何在一个环境和社会不平等的地方发挥作用。该研究旨在将环境和数字不平等问题联系起来，以了解如何创建更公平和可持续的网络基础设施。本研究解决了以下研究问题。提取和区域基础设施发展的历史如何以及在多大程度上反映在当前的网络基础设施中？在脆弱的沿海社区，维护和扩大网络基础设施的做法如何转变，以应对剧烈的环境变化的影响？在脆弱的沿海社区，维护和扩大网络基础设施的替代方法是什么？为了解决这些问题，研究人员使用历史、人种学和设计研究方法来理解和绘制环境不平等与数字不平等之间的历史联系，了解在脆弱的沿海社区内维护和发展网络基础设施的做法，为STS和计算研究学者开发方法和实践，重新设想网络基础设施。这项研究将有助于决策者、计算从业者和当地社区建立对网络基础设施变化影响的新理解。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 Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant supports a research project that examines the impact of increasingly severe storms and rising sea levels on network infrastructures, such as the Internet and other digital communication channels. The research study is located in south Louisiana, where efforts to expand and maintain network connectivity are happening against the backdrop of sea level rise and increased intensity of storms. In particular, the researchers will study how recent federal and state policy initiatives that aim to broaden broadband access play out in a place shaped by environmental and social inequality. The research aims to connect issues of environmental and digital inequality as a way to understand how to create more equitable and sustainable network infrastructures. The study addresses the following research questions. How and to what extent are histories of extraction and regional infrastructural development reflected in current network infrastructures? How are practices of maintaining and expanding network infrastructures in vulnerable coastal communities shifting to respond to the impact of drastic environmental changes? What are alternative approaches to maintaining and expanding network infrastructures in vulnerable coastal communities? To address these questions, the researchers use historical, ethnographic, and design research methods to understand and map out historical connections between environmental inequality and digital inequality, to understand practices that maintain and develop network infrastructures within vulnerable coastal communities, to develop approaches and practices for STS and computing research scholars that re-envision network infrastructures. The research will contribute to building new understandings of the impact of such changes on network infrastructures among policy makers, computing practitioners, and local communities.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.