3. Methods and Analysis
In line with the tradition of procedural justice studies, I utilized
qualitative methods in this research. Qualitative research is often used
when one seeks to understand a given problem from the perspective of the
local population it involves. It is especially useful in collecting
values, opinions, behaviors and the social contexts of particular
populations (Cataldo, Kielmann and Seeley, 2011). This approach suits
the aim of this pilot study that is to understand from community groups
themselves how they address the relationship between flooding and
environmental justice, what they think about the public opportunities
available to deliberate about issues of flooding and finally whether and
how they produce, use, share knowledge and information about flooding.
Interviews
In terms of methods I decided to use an open-ended format, which unlike
close-ended ones (surveys, questionnaires), allows the interviewees to
speak at length about how they perceive coastal flooding in East Harlem
and understand the variation in their understandings. Semi-structured
interviews were conducted to capture the following:
- General overview of the interviewee and the community group
interviewees work for
- How coastal flooding is understood/described, whether it is a major
issue in the district
- How inland flooding is understood/described, whether it is a major
issue in the district
- How sensitivity to coastal flooding is understood/described in terms
of characteristics of groups and areas affected
- How climate resiliency is understood/described and whether city
efforts address the sensitivities previously discussed in point 5
- Climate-induced flooding knowledge production, access and sharing
The initial target was set for nine interviews across a variety of
groups working in East Harlem. The purposive sampling was based on the
broad criteria that the community groups needed to be sensitive to
flooding, meaning that flooding needed to be a concern in the work they
carried out. I needed help identify such groups so I asked to Hope Inc.
and Ascendant, two community development corporations of East Harlem
with whom I was working with at the time of this study. The list
included housing association, schools, EJ and advocacy groups, the
community board, NGOs, emergency preparedness groups. But, despite
repeated follow up emails, only three were secured, largely due to the
amount of time I had (1 month) and the busy schedules of the EJ groups
such as WeAct, who were out in the field for campaigning month. I
include the whole list below with those I actually interviewed
highlighted in yellow below. The names of the interviewees were deleted
to ensure privacy.