Challenges and opportunities in rapid disaster research: lessons from the field in New Mexico and Vanuatu

Mary Alice Scott; Kathryn M Olszowy; Kelsey N Dancause; Amanda Roome; Chim Chan; Hailey K Taylor; Andrea Marañon-Laguna; Emilee Montoya; Alysa Garcia; Claudia Mares; Beverlyn Tosiro; Len Tarivonda

doi:10.3389/fsoc.2023.983972

Challenges and opportunities in rapid disaster research: lessons from the field in New Mexico and Vanuatu

Front Sociol. 2023 Apr 20:8:983972. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.983972. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mary Alice Scott^#¹, Kathryn M Olszowy^#^{1

2

3}, Kelsey N Dancause⁴, Amanda Roome^{2

5}, Chim Chan⁶, Hailey K Taylor¹, Andrea Marañon-Laguna¹, Emilee Montoya¹, Alysa Garcia¹, Claudia Mares⁷, Beverlyn Tosiro⁸, Len Tarivonda⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anthropology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, United States.
² Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, United States.
³ Department of Criminology, Anthropology, and Sociology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, United States.
⁴ Département des sciences de l'activité physique, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁵ Bassett Research Institute, Basset Healthcare Network, New York, NY, United States.
⁶ Department of Parasitology and Virology, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan.
⁷ Department of Health and Human Services, Las Cruces, NM, United States.
⁸ Ministry of Health, Port Vila, Vanuatu.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Rapid research is essential to assess impacts in communities affected by disasters, particularly those communities made "hard-to-reach" due to their active marginalization across history and in contemporary practices. In this article, we describe two rapid research projects developed to assess needs for and experiences of communities hard-hit by disasters. The first is a project on the COVID-19 pandemic in southern New Mexico (USA) that was developed to provide information to local agencies that are deploying programs to rebuild and revitalize marginalized communities. The second is a project on population displacement due to a volcanic eruption in Vanuatu, a lower-middle income country in the South Pacific, with mental and physical health outcomes data shared with the Vanuatu Ministry of Health. We describe the similar and unique challenges that arose doing rapid research in these two different contexts, the potential broader impacts of the research, and a synthesis of lessons learned. We discuss the challenges of rapidly changing rules and regulations, lack of baseline data, lack of survey instruments validated for specific populations and in local languages, limited availability of community partners, finding funding for rapid deployment of projects, rapidly training and working with research assistants, health and safety concerns of researchers and participants, and communicating with local and international partners. We also specifically discuss how we addressed our own personal challenges while also conducting time-intensive rapid research. In both studies, researchers shared results with governmental and non-governmental partners who may use the data to inform the design of their own relief programs. While different in context, type of disaster, and research strategy, our discussion of these projects provides insights into common lessons learned for working with communities at elevated risk for the worst outcomes during disasters, such as the need for flexibility, compromise, and good working relationships with community partners.

Keywords: COVID-19; U.S.-Mexico border region; Vanuatu; natural disasters; rapid ethnographic assessment; rapid research.

Grants and funding

The New Mexico study received funding from the Natural Hazards Center and the American Philosophical Society. The Vanuatu study received funding from the Natural Hazards Center.