Strengthening Qualitative Research Through Methodological Innovation and Integration: Community Resources and Disaster Resilience

University Of South Florida, Tampa FL

Investigators

Abstract

SES- 0719158 Margarethe Kusenbach Beverly Ward University of South Florida For many decades, mobile home parks in Florida have provided affordable housing choices and viable communities to their residents. Yet Florida mobile home parks are becoming increasingly unstable places to live. This is due to the state's development boom and the recent increase in hurricane strikes, with both trends predicted to continue in the near future. Despite being a particularly sizable and vulnerable group of people, mobile home park residents have received little scholarly attention in the past. Thus, one general goal of the study is to learn more about a population that has been understudied in the past. Currently, we know little about the communities of mobile home park residents, and the conditions under which they thrive or fail. Even less is known about the residents' ability to prepare for, and cope with, natural hazards and other threats. Environmental, social, and cultural factors intersect in creating complex patterns of "community resources" and "disaster resilience" which will be closely investigated in this study. The geographic focus of the study is west-central Florida, particularly two counties on the Gulf Coast that are home to a very high number of mobile home parks and residents. The larger scholarly aim of the study is to contribute to our understanding of the complex role communities play during disasters. To this purpose, the study pursues four specific goals. The first goal is to assess the "community resources" of four carefully selected research sites (mobile home parks and surrounding areas) through a combination of qualitative and quantitative indicators. The second is to explain the existing variations in community profiles. The third goal is to assess the "disaster resilience" of residents at each research site. Fourth, and most importantly, the study will discuss the impact of community resources on the disaster resilience of residents via developing and testing a range of hypotheses. The study combines qualitative and quantitative research methods commonly used in sociology, anthropology, public policy analysis, urban planning, and geography in an innovative manner. Procedures include descriptive statistics, geographic information systems (GIS), community assessment, ethnographic observation, and approximately one hundred in-depth interviews. Research will be conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers, including two doctoral students, at the University of South Florida, Tampa, over a time period of eighteen months. One of the broader impacts of the study lies in its potential for policy, specifically for improving the protection of vulnerable communities before, during, and following natural disasters. Research findings will be made available to the local community and to government agencies to help improve disaster planning and recovery. Additionally, the research improves education by facilitating the teaching and mentoring of students.