Cross-Cultural Environmental Research: Lessons from the Field

Abstract

Environmental research with diverse stakeholders poses challenges for researchers, particularly when that research is also cross-cultural and/or cross-language. We argue that cross-cultural and/or cross-language environmental research requires translators and interpreters as active research partners, culture brokers and community partners to support research accountability and engagement, and that face-to-face surveys address challenges of other survey modes in cross-language and/or cross-cultural research. Drawing upon cross-cultural and cross-language environmental research with Vietnamese-American fishers on the U.S. Gulf Coast, we find that face-to-face surveys may promote response rate and allow for clarification, particularly for participants with language and cultural barriers. Translators, interpreters, culture brokers, and community partners play a critical role in cross-language and cross-cultural research and researchers must reflect on their role shaping research.