TY - JOUR
T1 - Engaged Convergence Research
T2 - An Exploratory Approach to Heat Resilience in Mobile Homes
AU - Phillips, Lora A.
AU - Solís, Patricia
AU - Wang, Chuyuan
AU - Varfalameyeva, Katsiaryna
AU - Burnett, Janice
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by American Association of Geographers.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Efforts to understand the complex, multidimensional nature of environmental vulnerability can generate new knowledge by deploying a convergence research framework within a community-engaged approach. We explore the benefits and shortcomings of what we call engaged convergence research (ECR) by narrating a case study that uncovered a pattern of indoor heat-related deaths that was previously unexplained: Although only 5 percent of Maricopa County, Arizona, residents live in mobile homes, residents of mobile homes account for 29 percent of indoor heat-related deaths. Exploring the multiplicative threats of economic precarity, population sensitivity to environmental exposure, site, and shelter type, we recharacterize the reality faced by mobile home dwellers to find them falling between the cracks of available heat resilience options. Beyond contributing to scholarship on indoor heat-related deaths, we demonstrate the potential for novel and actionable insights emerging from ECR. We also elucidate some of the challenges faced when enlisting community actors as coproducers of knowledge in geographic research.
AB - Efforts to understand the complex, multidimensional nature of environmental vulnerability can generate new knowledge by deploying a convergence research framework within a community-engaged approach. We explore the benefits and shortcomings of what we call engaged convergence research (ECR) by narrating a case study that uncovered a pattern of indoor heat-related deaths that was previously unexplained: Although only 5 percent of Maricopa County, Arizona, residents live in mobile homes, residents of mobile homes account for 29 percent of indoor heat-related deaths. Exploring the multiplicative threats of economic precarity, population sensitivity to environmental exposure, site, and shelter type, we recharacterize the reality faced by mobile home dwellers to find them falling between the cracks of available heat resilience options. Beyond contributing to scholarship on indoor heat-related deaths, we demonstrate the potential for novel and actionable insights emerging from ECR. We also elucidate some of the challenges faced when enlisting community actors as coproducers of knowledge in geographic research.
KW - community geography
KW - engaged convergence research
KW - heat
KW - mobile homes
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U2 - 10.1080/00330124.2021.1924805
DO - 10.1080/00330124.2021.1924805
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85111694670
SN - 0033-0124
VL - 73
SP - 619
EP - 631
JO - Professional Geographer
JF - Professional Geographer
IS - 4
ER -