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Kato, Yuki, Catarina Passidomo, and Daina Harvey. 2013. “Political Gardening in Post-disaster City: Lessons from New Orleans.” Urban Studies, 1-17.
The study examines the emergence of urban gardening activities in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Drawing on ethnographic and qualitative research conducted throughout the city between 2009 and 2012, it examines the ways in which various gardening projects in New Orleans exhibit different levels and scopes of political engagement, with a particular focus on how they manifest (sometimes in contradictory ways) in the projects’ missions and practices. On the basis of these findings, it is argued that current conceptualizations of political gardening are too limiting and do not account for the nuances of how politics shape, challenge and materialize in urban gardening activities. By highlighting the ever-shifting social, economic, and political context of the post-disaster recovery, the study illustrates how urban gardening is inherently political, but cautions that the extent to which gardening can subvert social injustice in the city may be limited.

Low, S. Taplin, D., and Lamb, M. (2005). Battery Park City: An ethnographic field study of the community impact of 9/11. Urban Affairs Review, 40(5). 655-682.
The authors report on an ethnographic study of Battery Park City in summer 2002, less than 1 year after 9/11. They sought to understand the impact of the disaster on this affluent residential enclave across the street from Ground Zero. The research team used rapid ethnographic assessment procedures (REAP), a productive yet relatively inexpensive rapid assessment methodology. The methods included participant observation, on-site interviews with a range of residents, and interviews with public officials and community leaders. The authors evaluate their data within a framework of hypothesized alternative “folk models” through which residents interpreted the rapid community change. Some friends and neighbors had left permanently, and many new residents arrived the following winter and spring in response to strong rent incentives. Findings include a rise in community activism, lingering fear, and a significant fissure in the community between residents who had survived the disaster and the many new residents.

Rodriguez, H., Trainor, J., and Quarantelli, E.L. (2006). Rising to the challenges of a catastrophe: The emergent and prosocial behavior following Hurricane Katrina. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 604(1). 82-101.
Using several data sources including an extensive database of media reports and a series of government documents, but relying primarily on the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center’s field research in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the authors describe the nontraditional behavior that emerged in that catastrophe. They also discuss the prosocial behavior (much of it emergent) that was by far the primary response to this event, despite widespread media reports of massive antisocial behavior. Their study focuses on individual and group reactions in Louisiana during the first three weeks following the hurricane. The authors limit their systematic analyses of emergent behavior to five groupings: hotels, hospitals, neighborhood groups, rescue teams, and the Joint Field Office. Their analysis shows that most of the improvisations undertaken helped in dealing with the various problems that continued to emerge following Katrina. The various social systems and the people in them rose to the demanding challenges of a catastrophe.

Leverentz, A.M. (2006). The love of a good man? Romantic relationships as a source of support or hinderance for female ex-offenders. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 43(4). 459-488.
This article explores the impact of romantic relationships on the reentry experiences of female ex-offenders. Although attachment to a prosocial spouse is an important social bond in the desistance of male offenders, male and female offenders have different offending and life experiences and are likely to draw romantic partners from very different groups. This article addresses this issue through an analysis of qualitative interviews with 49 female ex-offenders and their romantic partners. These women most often have relationships with recovering drug users and/or ex-offenders, not purely prosocial men or women. These relationships are dynamic and may be both destructive and conventionalizing at different points in time. Many women also consciously avoid romantic relationships, at least temporarily. These patterns of romantic relationships for female ex-offenders add to our understanding of the role of social bonds in desistance. This article emphasizes the need to look at relationships as processes rather than static events and to expand the definition of prosocial partners.

Encyclopedia Articles

“Fieldnotes.” Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods. (2004): 387-389.
Fieldnotes constitute the ethnographic record of ethnographic or participant observation research and are arguably the most essential part of the field research enterprise. Comprising the chronological log of experiences in the field, they include descriptions of people, events, the fabric of the setting, conversations with people, observed interactions, and sequences and duration of events, as well as the researcher’s experiences connected to the investigation. It is important, too, that the observer note anything about the general state of him or herself that might have bearing on the form or quality of the data. These notes may also contain interpretations of observed events and interactions and insights into the culture studied. In short, fieldnotes comprise the contents from which the analysis derives.