My research examines how humans use social infrastructure to adapt to 水 insecurity – things like sharing jugs of 水 with neighbors, pooling labor and resources to build self-made community 水 systems, or buying 水 under the table from informal 水供应商. As an 经济 anthropologist I take a deeply anthropological perspective to understand: what social institutions have people used over human 历史 to secure 水 in changing and unpredictable environments? And, can similar social institutions facilitate successful 水 management in an uncertain climatic future? 为了解决 these questions, I conduct community-based ethnographic research in California communities that are experiencing 水 insecurity, and I both lead and participate on teams to bring local ethnographic findings into cross-cultural comparison with other 水 insecure sites around the world. 

 

Research 连接s to Current 事件

Climate scientists predict that half of the world's population will be living in 水 stressed conditions by 2040. One of the greatest challenges we will face in the coming years is ensuring that all people have access to safe, reliability and adequat fresh 水. My research aims to advance the basic science and key analytics necessary to achieve the Human Right to Water, which was ratifed by the United Nations in 2010. To date, a large gap between the ways that that people actually experience 水 insecurity 在地上vs. how the phenomena of 水 scarcity and insecurity have been measured and assessed by scientists has stymied policy proposals aimed to deliver safe, secure, and sufficient access to household 水 for people. I work with a global team of researchers who are all working to address this gap. 

 

Personal 连接s to Research

In high school I took AP Environmental 科学 and became passionate about doing something to address the climate crisis. I went to college wanting to become an environmental lawyer, so that I could help design new laws, policies, and programs to protect people from the impacts of climate change. But then I stumbled upon environmental social science through my general education requirements. I later became fascinated with anthropological research that showed how human cultural norms and social arrangements have helped people adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions throughout human 历史. This made me recognize the importance of these social arrangements in my 自己的生活.

I grew up on the California central coast in an unincorporated area with no public 水的访问. My family shared a well with our neighbors and every一个 met monthly to discuss how to manage the 水, who was going to pay for system maintenance and upgrades, how much 水 each house was allowed to use, and so on. 在反思中 these experiences, I realized that although laws and policies are important (and we should always be striving for better laws and policies), the relationships in our own communities are the most immediate ways we can adapt to our environments and protect ourselves from things like drought, disasters, or other types of crises. 

 

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