An official website of the United States government
This study initiated an exploration into how community members, specialists in housing issues, and social scientists might collaborate to address homelessness in Alaska. Through interviews and participant observation of planning meetings and related activities, the researchers are gathering insights from design experts, community organizers, and experts working on urban-rural homelessness in Alaska. This includes gathering information about cold weather design processes and issues facing urban-rural homelessness in Alaska, as well as the identification of possible research questions that can inform the development of a grant application for a multi-year research study. The study includes in-person as well as virtual research activities. Because of geographic distances, the majority of initial research activities were conducted virtually, but in-person field site visits began to take place June 15, 2021, and subsequent trips have taken place from August 2021-onward. These research trips involve site visits, participation in meetings, and in-person interviews when possible. Phase 1: 24 initial interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders about housing insecurity in Alaska and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Includes interviewees from remote villages, from the Association of Alaskan Housing Authorities (AAHA), homeless advocates, designers, social scientists, engineers, and builders. Topics included myths about homelessness, homeless versus houseless terminology, research organizations, policies, impacts of pandemic, housing needs, and contrasting strategies. Analysis and synthesis with subsequent data is ongoing. 01: policy 02: interview with researcher 03: homelessness - Anchorage - rural communities - data sharing 04: design in rural communities 05: housing shortages in rural communities 06: technical issues in housing - collaborating with rural communities 07: homeless community in Fairbanks 08: history of Cold Climate Housing Research Center 09: design - homelessness - Anchorage 10: homelessness - rural/hub/urban - need for housing design repository 11: homelessness - Nome - Savoonga - designers need to visit villages 12: reverse interview - designer interviews researchers 13: homelessness - Anchorage - Bethel - housing costs 14: homelessness - rural/hub/urban spectrum - subsistence - houseless term 15: homelessness data and Bethel - impacts of pandemic - myths 16: homelessness data and Bethel - impacts of pandemic 17: ISERC (Integrated Security Education and Research Center) research 18: homelessness data and Bethel - CARES Act 19: homelessness data (gaps) and Bethel - CARES Act 20: homelessness data and Bethel 21: designer - public awareness and museum exhibits 22: veterans and community organizer 23: AAHA staff member 24: homelessness - Fairbanks - pandemic impacts on rescue missions Phase 2: 49 additional interviews were conducted with support from NSF funding (NSF 2103356: RAPID: COVID-19, Remote Ethnography, and the Rural Alaskan Housing Crisis). A meta-data description of the participants and topics are attached ('RAPID_interview_list___Descriptions').
more »
« less
Perspectives from State and Regional Professionals on Rural Alaskan Water Projects (2020-2021)
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)
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2022260
- PAR ID:
- 10673576
- Publisher / Repository:
- NSF Arctic Data Center
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- drinking water rural water systems water management Rural Alaska Alaskan water
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Other: text/xml
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
{"Abstract":["The study\ndraws on the concept of institutional logics to investigate the decision-making\nbehavior of drinking water suppliers. Interviews were conducted with managers and staff from mid-sized drinking water utilities in the USA during 2022. The interviews elicit information about the organization structure of the drinking water supplier, the types of decisions they make, and the general decision-making process used by the organization. Interviewees then identify one or more examples of situations for which the drinking water supplier needed to make a challenging decision and describe the considerations and decision-making process associated with that decision. Topics addressed include repairs of aging, outdated, or degraded infrastructure;\nupdates to operational practices; operational disruptions; and responses to\nexternal mandates. Interviews vary in length and in the number of decisions discussed."],"Methods":["face-to-face interview; telephone interview; Interviews were conducted with the managers and staff of mid-sized drinking water suppliers in the USA and followed a semi-structured process. Fourteen interviews were conducted across 5 drinking water suppliers. A total of 25 interviewees participated in the interviews, with the number of interviewees per interview ranging from 1 to 7. The following steps were taken to de-identify the interview\ndata and prepare it for public and long-term archival.\n\n 1) All recordings were transcribed using an AI software. 2) Transcriptions were lightly edited manually for accuracy and\nconsistency. Speech fillers and double\nwords were retained. \n\n3) Files were named using the following template: SupplierA_InterviewX. A = the supplier number X = Interview number\n\nfor that supplier4) Identifying information was removed using the following replacementsInterviewer and Interviewee names were replaced with "Interviewer#" or "Participant#" Each interviewee has a unique Participant#. Some interviewees participated in more than one interview. The same participant number is used for that interviewee across the transcripts of all interviews in which that person participated. Water utility name was replace with "SupplierA"(as above in\nnaming the file) Names of state governmental agencies were replaced with "state XXX\nagency" Where XXX is the type of agency\nit is. References to specific person names (beyond the interviewer and interviewees) were replaced with "PersonX" "PersonY" or "PersonZ" Locations that are identifying are replaced with generic\nname (e.g., highway, bridge, river, neighboring state) Identifying dates or values were replaced with "Year" or "RecentYear" or similarOther identifying information was replaced with [redacted for anonymity]Certain text was replaced with [redacted on participant request]"]}more » « less
-
This dataset includes anonymized interview data about the provision of water services in rural Alaska, focused on holistically understanding water service challenges using a systems approach. Eighteen semi-structured interviews with 19 stakeholders involved in the provision of water services in rural Alaska are included. These interviews were conducted from January 25th to June 28th, 2021. Interviews were conducted via teleconferencing or phone and were recorded (with permission), transcribed, checked for quality, and anonymized. Interview data was analyzed using a deductive-inductive qualitative content analysis. The data supported the following research objectives: 1) identify challenges within the financial, human, natural, and technical systems involved in the provision of water services in rural Alaska, and 2) use a systems thinking approach to identify interdependencies between systems.more » « less
-
This dataset contains de-identified transcripts of semi-structured interviews conducted with 25 stakeholders who make adaptation decisions for government agencies, nonprofits, engineering firms, or academic institutions in rural Alaska. The stakeholders included 14 government organizations, 5 private industry organizations, 2 academic institutions, non-profit organizations and tribal organizations each respectively. The file contains questions aimed at understanding stakeholders’ work in rural Alaska and how their work affects the adaptation of infrastructure including barriers of infrastructure adaption and the dimensions of adaptation barriers. The data was collected from Summer 2019 to Spring 2020.more » « less
-
This dataset contains de-identified survey data from 26 organizations and 36 people involved in housing services and projects in rural Alaska. These organizations included state and federal government organizations (9 organizations), regional housing authorities (4 organizations), and non-governmental organizations (13 organizations). The file contains questions and data on organizations’ ability to enact adaptation of housing, frequency of inter-organizational communication, and organizational attributes. The data was collected from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021. This study aims to understand the role of organizations in housing in rural Alaska. Through surveys with stakeholders from government organizations, non-profits, and professional firms, this study will provide a deeper understanding of housing concerns, collaboration between organizations and participatory practices of organizations with community-level stakeholders.more » « less
