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:
  1. General overview of the interviewee and the community group interviewees work for
  2. How coastal flooding is understood/described, whether it is a major issue in the district
  3. How inland flooding is understood/described, whether it is a major issue in the district
  4. How sensitivity to coastal flooding is understood/described in terms of characteristics of groups and areas affected
  5. How climate resiliency is understood/described and whether city efforts address the sensitivities previously discussed in point 5
  6. 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.