Geographic and Sociodemographic Variability in Air Pollution Exposure

空气污染是最大的环境健康威胁之一。城市地区的空气污染问题及其对不同社会经济群体的不均衡影响已经得到了很好的记录。然而，人们对这个问题如何影响人们的日常做法和体验的关注较少，特别是在污染看不到雾霾的地方。这个项目考察了社会人口差异在多大程度上塑造了城市空气污染的体验。更多地了解人们的行为和做出与空气有关的决定，对于为解决污染及其影响的政策措施提供信息至关重要。该项目的成果将与研究参与者分享，并向广大学术和非学术受众传播。更广泛的影响还包括致力于城市污染问题的社区组织之间的对话，以及为初中生和高中生开发学习模块。这项民族志研究探索了人们如何在三个尺度上处理受污染的空气：家庭、地方和更大的城市景观。问题是：(1)高污染社区的居民如何看待和管理家里的空气，以及它与窗外和门口外充满交通的空气的联系？(2)当沿着交通密集的街道行驶时，居民如何感知和回应空气的各种质量，围绕交通控制措施的争议反映了不同人对空气污染的看法？(3)空气和车辆在城市中的流动如何影响居民的日常体验，以及各种政策对这些流动有何影响？许多关于空气污染的研究探索了烟雾或雾霾容易出现的地理环境，并影响了社会对毒性的看法。通过参与者观察和半结构化访谈，这项研究将加深对空气污染行为反应是否在不易察觉的环境中发生变化的理解。该项目将推进人类学中关于资源重要性、污染生活经验和环境科学的理论对话。该项目由文化人类学项目和既定的激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)共同资助。该奖项反映了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。

Air pollution is one of the largest environmental health threats. The problem of air pollution in urban areas and its uneven impacts across different socio-economic groups have been well documented. Less attention has been paid, however, to how this issue affects people’s everyday practices and experiences, especially in places where the pollution is not visible as smog. This project examines the extent to which sociodemographic variation shapes the experience of urban air pollution. Understanding more about how people behave and make decisions related to the air is vital for informing policy measures to address pollution and its impacts. Results from this project will be shared with research participants and disseminated to a wide academic and non-academic audience. Broader impacts will also include a dialog between community organizations working on urban pollution and the development of learning modules for middle and high school students.This ethnographic research explores how people navigate polluted air across three scales: households, localities, and the larger urban landscape. It asks: (1) How do residents of highly polluted neighborhoods think about and manage the air inside their homes and its link with the traffic-filled air beyond their windows and doorways?; (2) How do residents sense and respond to air’s varied qualities when moving along streets dense with traffic and what do controversies over traffic control measures say about different people’s perceptions of air pollution?; (3) How do flows of air and vehicles across a city shape the day-to-day experience of residents, and in what ways do various policies impact these flows? Many studies of air pollution hexplored geographic settings where smog or haze is readily apparent and impacts social perceptions of toxicity. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this research will deepen understandings of whether behavioral responses to air pollution vary in contexts where it is not readily visible. The project will advance theoretical conversations within anthropology on resource materiality, the lived experience of pollution, and environmental science.This project is jointly funded by the Cultural Anthropology program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.