Katherine E . Browne
Colorado State University, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Social and Cultural Anthropology, Disaster Culture, Applied, engaged, and public anthropology, Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Foodways (Anthropology), Neuroanthropology, and 4 moreAfrican American Studies, Anthropology, Equitable community development and culturally competent community organizing models, and Black Studies Or African American Studiesedit
Academic-practitioner divides in disaster management and research can be persistent and pernicious, bearing consequences for disaster survivors and future affected populations. The gap between disaster professionals and academic... more
Academic-practitioner divides in disaster management and research can be persistent and pernicious, bearing consequences for disaster survivors and future affected populations. The gap between disaster professionals and academic researchers is often treated as an unavoidable structural problem or a neutral accident of professional silos and circumstance. We suggest that these gaps are not neutral, and that they can and must be overcome. With hundreds of millions of people affected by disaster each year and recovery costs skyrocketing, there is urgency in connecting researcher and practitioner knowl-edges to avoid expensive mistakes and most importantly, to decrease human suffering. Yet the difficulties that US academic anthropologists and practitioners experienced in their efforts to collaborate became evident in a cross-sector National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded workshop on the relevance of culture in disaster work. We suggest and illustrate how more systematic cross-field communication can be operationalized through engaging in an ongoing and relational process of bridging. Such a process can offer long-term benefits to the people and institutions involved, dramatically enhance the science of disaster management, and help reduce the social and material costs of disaster impacts. Keywords Academic and practitioner divide Á Applied research Á Cross-sector communication Á Culture and disaster Á Disaster anthropology Á Disaster management
Research Interests: Community Resilience, Disaster Studies, Climate Change Adaptation, Environmental Studies, Disaster risk management, and 13 moreCollaboration, Writing, Environmental Justice, Creative thinking, Cultural Anthropology, Gender and Race, Social vulnerability, Practitioner Research, Disaster risk reduction, Story, Post Disaster Recovery, Disaster Culture, and Risk factors
Academic-practitioner divides in disaster management and research can be persistent and pernicious, bearing consequences for disaster survivors and future affected populations. The gap between disaster professionals and academic... more
Academic-practitioner divides in disaster management and research can be persistent and pernicious, bearing consequences for disaster survivors and future affected populations. The gap between disaster professionals and academic researchers is often treated as an unavoidable structural problem or a neutral accident of professional silos and circumstance. We suggest that these gaps are not neutral, and that they can and must be overcome. With hundreds of millions of people affected by disaster each year and recovery costs skyrocketing, there is urgency in connecting researcher and practitioner knowl-edges to avoid expensive mistakes and most importantly, to decrease human suffering. Yet the difficulties that US academic anthropologists and practitioners experienced in their efforts to collaborate became evident in a cross-sector National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded workshop on the relevance of culture in disaster work. We suggest and illustrate how more systematic cross-field communication can be operationalized through engaging in an ongoing and relational process of bridging. Such a process can offer long-term benefits to the people and institutions involved, dramatically enhance the science of disaster management, and help reduce the social and material costs of disaster impacts. Keywords Academic and practitioner divide, Applied research, Cross-sector communication, Culture and disaster, Disaster anthropology, Disaster management
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When Hurricane Harvey stranded thousands of people in Houston neighborhoods, emergency responders shared the call to duty with residents who rushed to save lives. One such initiative was Houston Harvey Rescue, organized by three men who... more
When Hurricane Harvey stranded thousands of people in Houston neighborhoods, emergency responders shared the call to duty with residents who rushed to save lives. One such initiative was Houston Harvey Rescue, organized by three men who used Google maps, Facebook, and a walkie talkie app to help coordinate hundreds of rescue efforts. Skilled boaters are part of Houston’s cultural landscape, and in the aftermath of the storm, local people improvised to match available boaters to stranded residents. Houston Harvey Rescue also supplied critical local knowledge to outside volunteers, including the Cajun Navy.
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Big bayou families knew cooking and sharing food could help them cope after disaster struck, but the recovery machine got in the way, creating a second, less visible crisis.
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This article argues for expanding the ethical frame of concern in disaster research from the early phases of site access to longer-term issues that may arise in the field. Drawing on ethical theory, these arguments are developed in five... more
This article argues for expanding the ethical frame of concern in disaster research from the early phases of site access to longer-term issues that may arise in the field. Drawing on ethical theory, these arguments are developed in five sections. First, we identify the philosophical roots of ethical principles used in social science research. Second, we discuss how ethical concerns span the entire lifecycle of disaster-related research projects but are not fully addressed in the initial protocols for gaining Institutional Research Board (IRB) approval. Third, we introduce the idea of the philosophically informed “ethical toolkit,” established to help build awareness of moral obligations and to provide ways to navigate ethical confusion to reach sound research decisions. Specifically, we use the work of W. D. Ross to introduce a template of moral considerations that include fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, selfimprovement, and non-maleficence. We suggest that in the absence of a clear framework that researchers can use to think through ethical dilemmas as they arise, Ross’ pluralist approach to ethical problem solving offers flexibility and clarity and, at the same time, leaves space to apply our own understanding of the context in question. Fourth, we draw on six examples from our research studies conducted following Hurricane Katrina. Using these examples, we discuss how, in retrospect, we can apply Ross’ moral considerations to the ethical issues raised including: (1) shifting vulnerability among disaster survivors, (2) the expectations of participants, and (3) concerns about reciprocity in long-term fieldwork. Fifth, we consider how the ethical toolkit we are proposing may improve the quality of research and research relationships.
Research Interests: Sociology, Sociology of Disaster, Black Studies Or African American Studies, Ethics, Research Ethics, and 10 moreDisaster Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Identity (Culture), Longitudinal Research, Post Disaster Reconstruction, Disasters, Bureaucracy, Disaster Culture, Gender and disaster, and Crisis/disaster Management
This article argues for expanding the ethical frame of concern in disaster research from the early phases of site access to longer-term issues that may arise in the field. Drawing on ethical theory, these arguments are developed in five... more
This article argues for expanding the ethical frame of concern in disaster research from the early phases of site access to longer-term issues that may arise in the field. Drawing on ethical theory, these arguments are developed in five sections. First, we identify the philosophical roots of ethical principles used in social science research. Second, we discuss how ethical concerns span the entire lifecycle of disaster-related research projects but are not fully addressed in the initial protocols for gaining Institutional Research Board (IRB) approval. Third, we introduce the idea of the philosophically- informed “ethical toolkit,” established to help build awareness of moral obligations and to provide ways to navigate ethical confusion to reach sound research decisions. Specifically, we use the work of W. D. Ross to introduce a template of moral considerations that include fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, self- improvement, and non-maleficence. We suggest that in the absence of a clear framework that researchers can use to think through ethical dilemmas as they arise, Ross’ pluralist approach to ethical problem solving offers flexibility and clarity, and, at the same time, leaves space to apply our own understanding of the context in question. Fourth, we draw on six examples from our respective research studies conducted following Hurricane Katrina. Using these examples, we discuss how, in retrospect, we can apply Ross’ moral considerations to the ethical issues raised including: (1) shifting vulnerability among disaster survivors, (2) the expectations of participants, and (3) concerns about reciprocity in long-term fieldwork. Fifth, we consider how the ethical toolkit we are proposing may improve the quality of research and research relationships.
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Katrina tore into the Gulf Coast in 2005 bringing fright and ruin and heartbreak. It ripped open the collective American psyche and, for a brief moment, left a void. That space within fresh disaster is quiet, and in its stillness we... more
Katrina tore into the Gulf Coast in 2005 bringing fright and ruin and heartbreak. It ripped open the collective American psyche and, for a brief moment, left a void. That space within fresh disaster is quiet, and in its stillness we breathe the rawness of impermanence, and we wonder if anything can ever be mended back. None whose lives were changed by the horror of Katrina needed anything more to endure beyond the shock and grief of the disaster. They needed every possible comfort, every shred of understanding a rescue could lend. Instead, the system deployed to secure their recovery and help them heal piled on bewildering new hardships, and in the years to come, increased the suffering of survivors and prolonged the time it took them to get their lives back in order.
The storm and levee breaches left a “terrifying wilderness of ruins”i that constituted the largest residential disaster in US history,ii with damage or destruction to more than 500,000 homes in Louisiana and countless other structures in a 90-square-mile area. Every one of the 300 family members in my research experienced profound material loss from Katrina.
The storm and levee breaches left a “terrifying wilderness of ruins”i that constituted the largest residential disaster in US history,ii with damage or destruction to more than 500,000 homes in Louisiana and countless other structures in a 90-square-mile area. Every one of the 300 family members in my research experienced profound material loss from Katrina.
Research Interests: Cultural History, Sociology of Disaster, Communication, Intercultural Communication, Cultural Sociology, and 12 moreCommunity Resilience, Disaster Studies, Resilience, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Culture, Disaster Mental Health, Cross-Cultural Communication, Post Disaster Reconstruction, Agency, Disaster Response and Recovery, Bureaucracy, and Disaster Culture
Some of us doubt that there is any such thing as morality in the realm of economic life. Some say moral commitments in an economy characterize only precapitalist societies where systems of reciprocity bind people to each other and to... more
Some of us doubt that there is any such thing as morality in the realm of economic
life. Some say moral commitments in an economy characterize only
precapitalist societies where systems of reciprocity bind people to each other
and to the social good. Others point out that capitalist systems are inherently
moral because they enshrine the rights of individuals. Today, as capitalism
spreads its logic to remote parts of the world, many economists and economic
thinkers such as Thomas Friedman (2005) argue that the morality of
individual choice is winning the day as globalization and technology work
to flatten historic inequalities of opportunity. At the same time, a tiny but
growing minority of economists, such as Nobel Prize–winning economist
Amartya Sen, argue that moral principles will remain absent from neoliberal
economies unless we deliberately shift the focus from measures of income
growth to measures of human capabilities and different kinds of freedoms.
With such wildly disparate assertions about morality and economics, how
can we properly evaluate all these competing claims? How do we reckon
with the contradictions and confusion of so many different ideas?
life. Some say moral commitments in an economy characterize only
precapitalist societies where systems of reciprocity bind people to each other
and to the social good. Others point out that capitalist systems are inherently
moral because they enshrine the rights of individuals. Today, as capitalism
spreads its logic to remote parts of the world, many economists and economic
thinkers such as Thomas Friedman (2005) argue that the morality of
individual choice is winning the day as globalization and technology work
to flatten historic inequalities of opportunity. At the same time, a tiny but
growing minority of economists, such as Nobel Prize–winning economist
Amartya Sen, argue that moral principles will remain absent from neoliberal
economies unless we deliberately shift the focus from measures of income
growth to measures of human capabilities and different kinds of freedoms.
With such wildly disparate assertions about morality and economics, how
can we properly evaluate all these competing claims? How do we reckon
with the contradictions and confusion of so many different ideas?
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This article introduces the concept of creole economics, a culturally informed view of the informal economy in Martinique, French West Indies. Local actors engaged in this economic practice are commonly known as débrouillards. Drawing on... more
This article introduces the concept of creole economics, a culturally informed view of the informal economy in Martinique, French West Indies. Local actors engaged in this economic practice are commonly known as débrouillards. Drawing on studies of French slavery and folklore, literary works by Caribbean authors, archival materials from Martinique, and the author's own ethnographic fieldwork, this argument suggests that cultural history and creole identities play a significant role in shaping local patterns of illicit earning. By extending the notion of creole adaptations to the economic domain, this work builds on the efforts of Caribbean scholars who have clarified the influence of creole adaptations in other areas, such as language, performance aesthetics, and belief systems. A débrouillard is the most intelligent person who succeeds in solving a problem first. He will take one underpaid job and then a second underpaid job to compensate for it. If he still needs more money, he will be forced to do something that doesn't correspond to his training. It is degrading to not be able to use your intellectual capacities. This is why many people do work on the side that they like. Forty-year-old male Martiniquais banker who maintains a profitable but un-declared farm on the side Prologue Like volcanic eruptions that form brand-new earth, creole societies of the Caribbean were fundamentally new constructions spewed from both resistance and accommodation to alien pressures from which there was no ready escape. In the context of the longest-running and most brutal labor system in human history, New World slaves produced and reproduced.
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This paper introduces a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and comparative study of how female entrepreneurship is patterned according to a society’s particular configuration of gendered institutions and ideologies. The islands of Puerto... more
This paper introduces a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and comparative study of how female entrepreneurship is patterned according to a society’s particular configuration of gendered institutions and ideologies. The islands of Puerto Rico, Martinique, and Barbados, colonized by Spain, France, and Britain respectively, exhibit strong differences in the incidence of female self employment and in local patterns of gender roles. Although these societies share a profound social history of sugar plantations and slave labor, their distinct colonial legacies have shaped important differences in the intensities and specific forms of patriarchal institutions and ideologies, differences that remain apparent in each island’s female workforce.
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... To preview how informal economic exchanges operate across classes, I will briefly introduce the parameters of the four socioeconomic groups and the lives of representative informants within them (see Figure 1). For convenience, I will... more
... To preview how informal economic exchanges operate across classes, I will briefly introduce the parameters of the four socioeconomic groups and the lives of representative informants within them (see Figure 1). For convenience, I will use the term "UEA" to refer to an ...
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Abstract. This article introduces the concept of creole economics, a culturally in-formed view of the informal economy in Martinique, French West Indies. Local actors engaged in this economic practice are commonly known as débrouillards.... more
Abstract. This article introduces the concept of creole economics, a culturally in-formed view of the informal economy in Martinique, French West Indies. Local actors engaged in this economic practice are commonly known as débrouillards. Drawing on studies of French slavery and ...
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This article argues for expanding the ethical frame of concern in disaster research from the early phases of site access to longer-term issues that may arise in the field. Drawing on ethical theory, these arguments are developed in five... more
This article argues for expanding the ethical frame of concern in disaster research from the early phases of site access to longer-term issues that may arise in the field. Drawing on ethical theory, these arguments are developed in five sections. First, we identify the philosophical roots of ethical principles used in social science research. Second, we discuss how ethical concerns span the entire lifecycle of disaster-related research projects but are not fully addressed in the initial protocols for gaining Institutional Research Board (IRB) approval. Third, we introduce the idea of the philosophically informed “ethical toolkit,” established to help build awareness of moral obligations and to provide ways to navigate ethical confusion to reach sound research decisions. Specifically, we use the work of W. D. Ross to introduce a template of moral considerations that include fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, self improvement, and non-maleficence. We suggest that in the absence of a clear framework that researchers can use to think through ethical dilemmas as they arise, Ross’ pluralist approach to ethical problem solving offers flexibility and clarity and, at the same time, leaves space to apply our own understanding of the context in question. Fourth, we draw on six examples from our research studies conducted following Hurricane Katrina. Using these examples, we discuss how, in retrospect, we can apply Ross’ moral considerations to the ethical issues raised including: (1) shifting vulnerability among disaster survivors, (2) the expectations of participants, and (3) concerns about reciprocity in long-term fieldwork. Fifth, we consider how the ethical toolkit we are proposing may improve the quality of research and research relationships.