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Fransha Dace's Qualifying Exam
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Committee members:
• Prof. Dorceta Taylor (Chair)
• Prof. Elijah Anderson (Yale Sociology)
• Prof. Ben Orlove (Columbia Univ.)
Please answer three questions in total. Answer two questions from Section I and one from Section II. Please answer each part of each question chosen.
Section I: Theoretical Frameworks, Methodologies, and Research Approaches
Do two questions from this section.
1. Howard S. Becker has published widely on qualitative methods and fieldwork, including his book Tricks of the Trade.
a. Please describe in a few pages your research plan for employing qualitative or ethnographic methods in your dissertation project.
b. What is your time frame for engaging in fieldwork and analyzing your results?
c. And how will these methods facilitate your work on the environment?”
2. In locating the just adaptation framework within climate change research, you emphasize this framework as the approach that guides your research on climate adaptation.
a. How does this framework differ from other approaches within research, advocacy, and policy in climate adaptation work?
b. You cite the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as a source for this framework. However, the ACF emerged from debates over the structure and dynamics of regulatory agencies, largely within the US. What continuities do you see between the ACF and the just adaptation framework, and what differences?
c. The word “just” is a fundamental component of the just adaptation framework. How do you see the relative contributions of procedural justice, distributional justice, and other forms of justice within this framework? Do these different components work together smoothly, or are there tensions between them?
3. The literature on climate risks and action in cities draws heavily on the concepts of vulnerability and resilience. These terms form part of your approach to your research questions.
a. What do you see as important advances in this literature? How do those draw on these two concepts? How do those advances influence your work?
b. Some work on climate change in cities bridges cities in developed and developing countries (or rich and poor countries, or former imperial and former colonial countries), while other work considers only one or the other. What can be learned by bridging these categories? What are the challenges to such bridging, and what are the strategies for overcoming them?
c. Dar es Salaam and Chicago were founded in the 19th century and grew rapidly through migration, the former largely from domestic sources, the latter from domestic and international sources. They are located in nations with very different histories, economies, and political systems. To understand the consequences of these structural factors for your research, indicate the ways that you draw directly on the literature on climate risks and actions in cities and on broader literature on urban society, culture, economics, and politics.
Section II: History, social structure, and extreme weather in urban areas.
Do one question from this section.
4. Extreme weather and a changing climate have long been features of urban areas such as Chicago and Dar es Salaam.
a. Discuss the history of extreme weather and climate change in Chicago and Dar es Salaam over the past century, paying attention to heat, flooding, and cold temperatures where applicable.
b. Discuss how government (local, state, and national) has responded to significant weather events and climate change in each city.
c. Discuss how urban residents have been affected by extreme weather and climate change in each city and say how they have responded to climate change.
5. Residential segregation occurs in Chicago and Dar es Salaam.
a. Discuss the actors, factors, and conditions that gave rise to and perpetuated residential segregation in both cities.
b. Discuss how residential segregation is related to the effects and impacts of climate change in both cities.
c. Discuss how you will assess the relationship between residential segregation and climate change in your dissertation research.
6. Much research on cities, whether about climate or other topics, centers on comparisons in which cities, as wholes, are the units of analysis. Your work emphasizes neighborhoods, with attention to local organizations, networks and identities; you also give importance to community, another sub-city unit.
a. Discuss the treatment of neighborhood and of community in the literature on climate risks and actions in cities. Indicate some specific studies that have been important for developing your research.
b. There have been both top-down and bottom-up approaches to studying neighborhoods and communities in cities. The former examines the larger structures and systems that shape neighborhoods and communities, while the latter focuses on locally based self-organizing. Discuss these two approaches, indicating contrasts and points of connection.
c. Draw on these two approaches to discuss some of the features or dimensions along which neighborhoods in Chicago and Dar es Salaam vary. Are these dimensions similar or different for the two cities? Discuss these patterns, examining specific examples.