I want to continue to support others in their research. I think the ecogov lab is a space to grow as a researcher. I want to continue to be motivated. The ecogov lab has shown me the importance of field notes and why having archiving is important. I hope to make new connections outside of Irvine and continue to connect dots for others.
I want to surround myself with people who want to make a difference in the world. I want to learn tools to make my passion for helping others a reality. I want to put public policy and research together and create realistic goals to eliminate policies that put low income residents at a disadvantage.
On Wednesday Oct 5th 2022, CUAL (Communidad Unida Aire Limpio) hosted an air monitoring day. Santa Ana residents were asked to volunteer and donate their time. There was three shifts available (Morning 7am-10am, Noon 12pm-3pm, Evening 4pm-7pm). A volunteer will use the app Atmotube and pair their phone up with an air monitor. There are driving routes and walking routes. A person will need to stay at each stop of the route for 7 mins. After the route is done, the volunteer will go back and return the monitor and will then send their data to mpnacorg@gmail.com
This video is a Tik Tok I made about my experience with volunteering for CUAL.
https://www.tiktok.com/@josephvkast/video/7151573175829318958?is_copy_u…
Following the article, the author J. Kenens has published another paper "Changing perspectives: tracing the evolution of citizen radiation measuring organizations after Fukushima (2020)" DOI: 10.1051/radiopro/2020041 (link) that draws on the research on citizen science in Japan with a new focus on the comparison of their practices directly after the nuclear accident and today.
It is interesting to see how citizen science in Japan is enacted and how the concept of citizen science is dependent to the social and cultural context. Also looking at it not only from a top-down perspective, where universities or organizations are involved, but also the bottom-up perspective that includes only those practices that are done by citizens alone opens up a new space. As I am currently engaging with research on air pollution in different sites, I could build from this text in considering the link between "citizen-driven approaches and institutional imparatives in the governance" (p. 7) of issues with air pollution.
The text is an article about citizen science in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The first noteworthy detail about this text that struck me is the inclusion of Japanese words and even their original spelling. This creates a kind of closeness to the field that the authors did their research in.
The authors engaged in multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork that took place in and around Fukushima but also in other geografical sites like Tochigi, Miyagi, Aichi, Tokyo and Kyoto. There, they conduct semi-structured interviews with various organisations that are all somehow involved with citizen science or radiation measurement. To learn about the citizens that measure radioactivity and create their own data on radiation because of a lack of provided data by the government, a literature review of policy documents and workshops with those citizen scientists is performed.
There were several forms of resilience int eh article. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were preparing several emergency personnel are preparing all along the coast. In addition to this, there were several shelters open, one specfically at the John F. Kennedy Recreation Center. Many of the shelters had also teamed up with Red Cross to help during the storm.
The author of the article took several quotes from government officials to depict the severity of the situation: mainly taking quotes from governors and even the president to illustrate how the hurricane affected the surrounding communities and mentalities of those living in such towns. In addition, the author added statistics of the support relief and the number of deceased due to the storm. The author also discussed the background of many of the public transportation work shifts, such as airlfight and train systems: they were down becuase of the storm.