All interviews were recorded with the consent of the
interviewee and were transcribed on a word document. Considering the
small number of interviews, no analysis software was use but themes were
identified through keyword search.
On the use of quotes in the
analysis
The use of quotes or verbatim from participants is a typical and
necessary component to any qualitative research report. It is by
revealing participants’ exact language that the researcher helps the
user of the research to understand the key takeaways by clarifying
through illustration the essential points of the researcher’s
interpretations. The idea is not to display an extensive list of what
people said but rather provide quotes that have been carefully selected
for being the most descriptive or explanatory of the researcher’s
conceptual interpretation of the data. By embedding carefully chosen
extracts from participants’ words in the final document, the researcher
uniquely gives participants a voice in the outcomes while contributing
to the credibility – and transparency – of the research
(Morrow, 2005).
Observations at Public
Meetings
To make up for the interviews that I was not able to attend I increased
the number of public meetings I observed, from two to four. These
community group meetings were called around a variety of issues directly
or indirectly connected to coastal and inland flooding and specifically.
The first meeting was organized by Hope Inc. and in this occasion, I
presented the findings from a coastal flooding mapping project I carried
out as part of my GIS course at the New School. The project was a
cooperation with Hope and Ascendant. The conversation that ensued
between the two managers at Hope and Ascendant revealed some important
aspects and concerns of matters CDCs when it comes to flooding. During
this and the other 3 meetings I attended I took notes in a notebook
about the themes naturally addressed by the meetings’ organizers and
those brought up by attendees. The meetings attended with topics and
attendees are listed below. The choice about what to attend was driven
by the topic addressed in the meeting, I didn’t have a lot of choice
given the short amount of time I had for field work; it had to be an
issue that was directly – climate resilience - or indirectly connected
to flooding – such as land use and planning. The full list of meetings
I attended is shown below with date of attendance, topic and number of
attendees.
- Meeting topic: exposure to coastal flooding in publicly funded,
privately owned housing. HOPE Inc HQs (March 29, 2019) > number of attendees: 6
- Meeting topic: land use and planning. Community Board 11 (April 3,
2019) > number of attendees: 10 community board members: 8 people in
audience
- Meeting topic: full Community Board 11 meeting (April 16, 2019) > number of attendees: 10 community board members; 30 people in
audience
- Meeting topic: climate change resilience working group. WeAct HQs
(April 24, 2019) > number of attendees: 3 WeAct members; 15 people in the audience
I practiced participant observations during both one-to-one interviews
and meetings. They helped me to collect information on naturally
occurring behaviors in their usual contexts, such as how interviewees
addressed other staff members in my presence, but also their working
spaces and the room set up at community meeting.
Secondary content
Analysis
Finally, I reviewed official policy documents about East Harlem,
focusing on the recently published Rezoning Plan (2017) for the district
and two community-based plans. One produced in 2015 called the Northern
Manhattan Climate Change Action Plan (NMCA) led by WeAct and the East
Harlem Neighborhood Plan, the 2016 plan that was brought to life by
community groups at the news of a possible rezoning of the district. In
each document I searched for keywords related to exposure and
interventions, such as: climate change, vulnerability, resilience,
adaptation, flooding, storm surge, extreme events, elevation, building
design, berm, sea-wall, green infrastructure.