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This dataset comprises anonymized transcripts from 20 semi-structured interviews with engineers, program managers, service providers, and researchers engaged in water infrastructure work in rural Alaska. Interviewees represented tribal, federal, and state agencies; private companies; nonprofit organizations; and academic institutions involved in the design, management, operation, or study of community drinking water systems across Alaska. Interviews were conducted in 2020 and 2021 and focused on identifying factors that contribute to the success or failure of rural Alaska drinking water projects. These projects face a range of persistent challenges that threaten reliable access to clean drinking water for community members. Interviews supported the following publication: Thelemaque, N., Cotherman, A., Pearson, R., Eichelberger, L., Neumann, R. B., & Kaminsky, J. A. (2022). Identifying the Built, Natural, and Social Factors of Successful and Failed Rural Alaskan Water Projects: Perspectives from State and Regional Professionals. Academic Chemical Society (ACS) Environmental Science and Technology (EST) Water. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.2c00201 File names for interview transcripts include the date of the interview, the professional role of the interviewee, and the number of years of experience they had at the time of the interview in rural Alaska water systems. Professional role categories included: - Geophysicist - Water pump service provider (abbreviated as 'pump' in file name) - Researcher in engineering, Alaskan rural water, or arctic research (abbreviated as 'researcher' in file name) - Engineer/project manager/construction manager (abbreviated as 'engineer' in file name) - Director/program manager for environmental health, drinking water, facilities, operator certification, and/or remote maintenance (abbreviated as 'director' in file name)
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Social memory and infrastructure governance: a century in the life of a rural drinking water system
Abstract Even in advanced economies, underperforming infrastructure is a persistent rural development challenge, with the case of non-compliant small drinking water systems (SDWSs) especially concerning because of the importance of safe drinking water to human health. While technical and financial deficits are known contributors to SDWS underperformance in rural settings, the role of local cultural and social context in water governance are less clear. The need for interoperable concepts that help explain how local contextual factors influence rural water governance and operation motivates this study. Drawing on insights from community resilience and critical infrastructure scholarship, this study draws attention to a previously overlooked dimension of local infrastructure governance: social memory. Archival research and 25 semi-structured interviews with experts and local stakeholders inform the paper’s reconstruction of the 100 years history of an SDWS in rural Montana, USA and analysis of the contemporary social memory it has generated. The study finds that social memory acts as a medium through which the lived experience of infrastructure influences priorities and values about its governance, especially in the context of small towns. Three major themes in the dynamics of social memory of infrastructure are described, including longevity, aesthetic and material qualities, and articulation with economic trajectories. In addition to establishing social memory as an effective conceptualization of the generative influence of infrastructure in water governance at the local scale, the paper has implications for policy; specifically, the observation that in addition to financial and technical capacity, historical experience is a powerful driver of infrastructure governance and outcomes such as underperformance.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1757351
- PAR ID:
- 10329039
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
- Volume:
- 1
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 2634-4505
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 035004
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4505/ac26d1
