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Abstract
Efforts to understand the complex, multidimensional nature of environmental vulnerability can generate new knowledge by deploying a convergence research framework within a community-engaged approach. We explore the benefits and shortcomings of what we call engaged convergence research (ECR) by narrating a case study that uncovered a pattern of indoor heat-related deaths that was previously unexplained: Although only 5 percent of Maricopa County, Arizona, residents live in mobile homes, residents of mobile homes account for 29 percent of indoor heat-related deaths. Exploring the multiplicative threats of economic precarity, population sensitivity to environmental exposure, site, and shelter type, we recharacterize the reality faced by mobile home dwellers to find them falling between the cracks of available heat resilience options. Beyond contributing to scholarship on indoor heat-related deaths, we demonstrate the potential for novel and actionable insights emerging from ECR. We also elucidate some of the challenges faced when enlisting community actors as coproducers of knowledge in geographic research.
在社区参与方法中采用趋同研究框架, 旨在理解复杂的多维度的环境脆弱性的研究, 可以带来新的认知。通过未曾探讨过的室内热死亡模式的案例研究, 我们讨论了“参与式趋同研究”的优缺点：在美国亚利桑那州的马里科帕县, 尽管只有5%的居民居住在移动房屋里, 但是移动房屋的居民占室内热死亡的29%。通过探讨经济动荡性、人口对环境、地点和房屋类型的敏感性等多重威胁, 我们重新描述了移动房屋居民所面临的现实, 发现这些居民正处于热韧性的缺陷之中。除了开展室内热死亡的研究, 我们还展示了参与式趋同研究带来创新的、可操作的认知的潜力。我们还阐述了在地理学研究中, 社区做为知识共同创造者所面临的一些挑战。
Los esfuerzos para entender la naturaleza compleja y multidimensional de la vulnerabilidad ambiental pueden generar nuevo conocimiento desplegando un marco de investigación de convergencia dentro de un enfoque de compromiso con la comunidad. Exploramos los beneficios y defectos de lo que nosotros denominamos investigación de convergencia comprometida (ECR), narrando un estudio de caso que pone al descubierto un patrón de muertes relacionadas con calor interior que antes permanecía sin explicación. Aunque solo el 5 por ciento de los residentes del Condado Maricopa, Arizona, habitan casas móviles, los residentes de las casas móviles aportan el 29 por ciento de las muertes relacionados con calor interior. Explorando las amenazas multiplicativas de la precariedad económica, la sensibilidad de la población a la exposición ambiental, sitio y tipo de albergue, nosotros recaracterizamos la realidad que enfrentan los habitantes de casas móviles hasta encontrarlos cayéndose entre las grietas de las opciones disponibles de resiliencia del calor. Más allá de contribuir a la erudición sobre muertes relacionadas con calor interior, nosotros demostramos el potencial de perspectivas novedosas y factibles que emergen de la ECR. También esclarecemos algunos de los retos que se deben enfrentar al enrolar actores de la comunidad como coproductores de conocimiento en investigación geográfica.
Acknowledgments
We thank Carlos Aguiar Hernandez, Alexandria Drake, Ashley Funneman, Dave Hondula, Liza Kurtz, Deidre Pfeiffer, Nisha Ravikesavan, Lily Villa, Libby Wentz, and the Maricopa County Public Health Department for their conceptual input, data collection efforts, and analytic assistance. We also thank the residents of mobile home parks, who coproduced this work.
Notes
1 To protect privacy, dots were automatically generated within each ZIP code using ArcGIS. We clarify that we did not fully engage a public participation geographic information systems (GIS) approach (Robinson Citation2010; Robinson, Block, and Rees Citation2017), and our use of GIS analysis was limited. In doing so, we underscore that even simple mapping and interpretation, done alongside community partners, can catalyze discovery and generate actionable insights.
2 Data presented span 2006 to 2018 to reflect what was available to us at the time of community engagement. Adding data from 2019 raises the proportion of indoor heat-related deaths in mobile homes to 29 percent, and in 2019 specifically 40 percent of such deaths occurred in mobile homes (MCPHD Citation2020). The MCPHD uses the term trailers as synonymous with mobile homes. We maintain their language in the presentation of their data.
3 For an interactive map of mobile homes in Maricopa County, visit https://bit.ly/3bZXMtZ.
4 We underscore the fact that we, as researchers, did not “create” all of the partnerships in this research; rather, we engaged long-standing partnerships (e.g., the UAN), and we gathered and joined together with actors already familiar with one another and working in the same domain to achieve a specific, shared goal.
5 The land surface temperature (LST) data have an error of –0.56 K ± 0.76 K (band 10 LST) and –2.16 K ± 1.64 K (band 11 LST; Cook et al. Citation2014), and the land cover classification data have an overall classification accuracy of nearly 92 percent (Li et al. Citation2014). These respective accuracy rates fall well within accepted ranges.
6 The five-minute time interval was selected to provide a sufficient resolution of daily thermal change while balancing the demands of a months-long data collection period, including data storage and battery limitations.
7 Although the indoor (i.e., out of direct sunlight) placement of these sensors circumvents many of their associated accuracy concerns, they were also tested and calibrated prior to deployment to ensure optimal accuracy (Hubbart et al. Citation2005).
8 All names are pseudonyms.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Lora A. Phillips
LORA A. PHILLIPS is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience within the Department of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research focuses on the spatial and temporal dynamics associated with inequality and insecurity, particularly across the domains of housing, income, and employment, with an emphasis on crisis events.
Patricia Solís
PATRICIA SOLÍS is Associate Research Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning and Executive Director of the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests emanate from the collective, multisector, and participatory use of geospatial data and geographic analysis to address socially relevant challenges around the world, from resource conflict to climate change–induced hazards to broadening participation in higher education.
Chuyuan Wang
CHUYUAN WANG is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography & Environmental Planning at Towson University, Towson, MD 21252. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include urban climate, urban ecosystems, terrestrial ecosystems, land use/land cover change, and natural resources management using GIS and remote sensing.
Katsiaryna Varfalameyeva
KATSIARYNA VARFALAMEYEVA is a Management Intern at Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include mobile home housing, heat resiliency, sustainable urban development, and urban planning.
Janice Burnett
JANICE BURNETT, retired, was the Executive Director of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona for forty-one years, wherein she partnered with numerous Arizona associations and three Arizona engineering colleges on a variety of issues (transportation, environmental, sustainability, etc.). Today, she continues her activism as a volunteer board member and Legislative Chairwoman with the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home and RV Owners, Tempe, AZ 85282. E-mail: [email protected]. Working with AAMHO, she helped pass a “Caregiver” bill and a “Property Tax Delinquency” bill to assist underserved manufactured home owners.