Lorie Higgins

Fire as a Galvanizing and Fragmenting Influence on Communities: The Case of the Rodeo–Chediski Fire

ABSTRACT Large wildfires that burn through the “forest–residential intermix” are complex events with a variety of social impacts. This study looks at three northern Arizona community clusters directly affected by the 2002 Rodeo–Chediski fire. Our analysis suggests that the fire event led to both the emergence of cohesion and conflict in the study area. Community cohesion was evident as residents “pulled together” to rebuild their communities. Examples of cohesion included managers of local businesses staying during evacuation to provide for the needs of firefighters, providing shelter and cleanup help for burned-out neighbors, and the emergence of locally based assistance groups. Several types of conflict rooted in blaming and distribution of firefighting and disaster assistance resources were found: cultural, local versus federal, community versus community, intracommunity, and environmental. We suggest that these responses are most usefully understood using the lenses of social psychology (attribution theory) together with sociology (structuration theory). Issues and dynamics that resulted in controversy or were seen as locally constraining and those that resulted in cohesion tended to relate to specific local impacts and how outsider actions were either consonant or dissonant with the application of local knowledge, local autonomy, and locally desirable outcomes.

Ceremonial Equity: Low-Income Energy Assistance and the Failure of Socio-Environmental Policy

In an era of declining natural resources and rising consumption, environmental equity is emerging as an increasingly important social problem. This paper considers the limitations of contemporary policymaking designed to mitigate environmental inequalities. We critically examine the history of low-income energy assistance (the federal Low Income Weatherization and Low Income Home Energy Assistance Programs) — the largest such effort in the United States to date — and explore the sources of decline and eventual transformation of these initiatives into largely symbolic adjuncts to state social welfare systems. Persistent inequalities in the distribution of energy assistance benefits are explored, and we use a series of CHAID models to analyze access routes to residual program benefits. Implications of the energy assistance case for other large-scale environmental equity efforts are considered. Suggestions are also offered for a more ecologically oriented and community-based approach to energy equity — one grounded in the realities of stratified environmental relations, better integrated with other social and environmental policies, and more clearly oriented toward the sustainability of natural and social systems.

Nontribal Community Recovery from Wildfire Five Years Later: The Case of the Rodeo–Chediski Fire

Recent literature suggests that natural disasters such as wildfires often have the short-term effect of “bringing people together” while also under some circumstances generating social conflict at the local level. Conflict has been documented particularly when social relations are disembedded by nonlocal entities and there is a perceived loss of local agency. There is less agreement about longer term impacts. We present results of a re-study of a set of communities affected by the largest wildfire in Arizona history. The re-study uses structuration theory to suggest that while local recovery has been generally very successful, vestiges of both fire-related social cohesion and conflict have survived. While some sources of post-fire conflict and cohesion have remained relatively unchanged, others have evolved. We suggest that more needs to be known about the longer term effects of large wildfire events and the role that advanced preparation for such events plays in local recovery.

Earth, Wind, and Fire: Wildfire Risk Perceptions in a Hurricane-Prone Environment

Wildfire is one of several potential disturbances that could have extraordinary impacts on individuals and communities in fire-prone areas. In this article we describe disturbance risk perceptions from interviews with residents in three Florida communities that face significant wildfire and hurricane risk. Although they live in areas characterized by emergency managers as having high wildfire risk and many participants have direct experience with wildfire, residents tended to share high hurricane and low wildfire risk perceptions. The different perceptions of risk seem linked to several factors: direct hurricane experience, different scales of impact, the local “hurricane culture,” effectiveness of local ordinances and development patterns, perceived predictability of the event, and perceived ability to control the event. This study shows that residents may perceive and act to reduce risk for one disturbance in relation to their perceptions, concern, and actions for another.

Community Coaching: Answering the Call for Innovative Approaches to Community-Based Development Initiatives

This research examines the emergence, nature, and potential of community coaching-based strategies. Through a case study approach, and associated methods, community coaching purposes, activities and practices are identified and a definition of community coaching is established. Possible implications of a community coaching-based delivery strategy for Extension systems undertaking community development initiatives are advanced, as are opportunities for future research.

Hurricanes and wildfires: generic characteristics of community adaptive capacity

This paper explores the question: to what extent is human community adaptive capacity generic versus hazard-specific? To what extent does having adaptive capacity for one type of disturbance indicate that communities also have adaptive capacity for other types of disturbance that they currently or may someday face? We did in-depth case studies in two Lee County, Florida communities to explore the extent to which residents have adaptive capacity for both hurricanes and wildfires. Although wildfire risk has significantly less salience than hurricane risk for participants, our results suggest that case study communities have built generic elements of adaptive capacity that are generalizable to address both disturbances: (1) interactional and organizational capacities; (2) professional knowledge and extra-local networks; and (3) local knowledge, resources, and skills. We conclude by offering examples of what an ‘all-hazard’ community might look like based on the development of generic adaptive capacity.

Themes in community resilience: A meta-synthesis of 16 years of Idaho Community Reviews

Abstract To address socioeconomic challenges in rural Idaho, some communities have participated in a community review process through Idaho Rural Partnership’s Community Review program. To understand patterns and trends in perceptions of local assets and challenges, we used a mixed-methods approach, including aggregation and statistical analysis of survey data collected over the course of 15 years, and qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions, focus group data, and assessment reports. Respondents were most dissatisfied with employment and availability of higher education, and most satisfied with items indicative of strengths in bonding social and cultural capital. Satisfaction for some community characteristics was found to vary by time, remoteness, and population size. Results aligned well with other research on rural wellbeing. Findings can help direct community planners and residents addressing local issues to develop response strategies, such as increased focus on infrastructure, health, community branding and placemaking, and building local leadership capacity.