Engaged Convergence Research: An Exploratory Approach to Heat Resilience in Mobile Homes

Lora A. Phillips, Patricia Solís, Chuyuan Wang, Katsiaryna Varfalameyeva, Janice Burnett

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)619-631
Number of pages13
JournalProfessional Geographer
Volume73
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

Keywords

  • community geography
  • engaged convergence research
  • heat
  • mobile homes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Earth-Surface Processes

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