Methods for understanding community resilience

So-called "wicked problems," such as ecological disasters and global climate change, threaten the well-being and livelihoods of socially vulnerable, and often rural, communities. Rural sociologists are well-poised to assess... [ view full abstract ]

So-called "wicked problems," such as ecological disasters and global climate change, threaten the well-being and livelihoods of socially vulnerable, and often rural, communities. Rural sociologists are well-poised to assess and address these complex events. In this session, four researchers will discuss conceptual and methodological insights from their work related to community resilience. Kathryn Keating will share her experience managing field interviewers within a longitudinal study on children and youth after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Her presentation will give insight into best practices for both project management and promoting respondent engagement. Anne Cafer will explore the methodological potential of fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM), a tool for combining individual cognitive maps into community constructs, shedding light on decision-making processes at the individual, household, and community levels. This presentation will detail the methodological procedure of a FCM design and analysis, with emphasis on its use in Sub-Saharan Africa. Michael Cope will examine the role of community, both physical and social, in influencing social response to catastrophic disruptions. Vanessa Parks will discuss the process of developing the Survey on Trauma, Resilience, and Opportunity of Neighborhoods in the Gulf (STRONG), a representative household-level telephone survey that explores the resilience-building capacities of Gulf Coast residents. These four presentations address community resilience from a variety of lenses and will showcase the work of burgeoning scholars (two graduate students and two assistant professors) within the organization.