Abstract
This paper examines the process of collecting data on New Orleanians affected by Hurricane Katrina. It does so by focusing upon the experiences of local researchers who were simultaneously conducting research on and within the disaster. It also documents one research team’s attempt to generate a random sample of residents from several New Orleans neighborhoods, stratified both by racial composition and level of damage. Further, it describes the challenges associated with navigating complex bureaucracies that are themselves affected by the disaster. Results demonstrate that our methods for drawing samples from six New Orleans neighborhoods yielded highly representative samples, even in heavily damaged neighborhoods where the long-term displacement required a multi-pronged strategy that involved contact by mail, telephone, and visits to local churches. The paper concludes by making recommendations for facilitating future research by locally affected researchers.
Highlights
“The important thing is not to draw up in advance a plan anticipating everything, but rather to set resolutely to work” (Durkheim, 1951)
The present study offers an extended view of such sociological determination as it intersected with the sociological imagination to document and examine social inequalities revealed and reproduced by New Orleans’s short- and mediumterm recovery from Hurricane Katrina
As the present study shows, local researchers occupy both a privileged and disadvantaged position in times of disaster
Summary
“The important thing is not to draw up in advance a plan anticipating everything, but rather to set resolutely to work” (Durkheim, 1951). In the case of Katrina, this sociological determination commonly gained strength from personal and professional desires to dispel myths and rumors about the disaster; to correct misinformation circulated in the media; and, to further expose social inequalities that contributed to the disaster and threatened fair, equitable recovery in its wake As we engaged these efforts ourselves and set out to survey residents of differently affected neighborhoods of New Orleans, scientific challenges were added to existing institutional ones. The research team further recruited and trained numerous graduate and undergraduate students who would participate in data collection and (in some cases) data analysis These efforts began five months after Katrina struck and grew out of an elite university (Tulane), the professional obstacles remained daunting and reveal some of the challenges of conducting research both on and in a disaster area where one lives and works. Our strategy of using proximate neighbors (in both neighborhoods) and network referrals (in the Lower Ninth Ward) allowed us to better access residents who had not returned
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