Research Philosophy, Methodological Implications, and Research Design

In this chapter, I explain the choices for the layers of the research approach applied in this book. Chiefly, I used a critical realist research stance and analyzed both qualitative case studies as well as survey data in a mixed methods approach. For the central qualitative research, I collected data through 81 problem-centered interviews, one focus group with 12 affected people, and discussions with over 60 experts. I analyzed the data through Qualitative Text Analysis to examine effects, mechanisms, social system dynamics, and structures. For the parallel quantitative study on the Coastal El Niño, I assessed extensive survey data through regression models. To evaluate differential displacement risk, I used a dataset collected by Peru’s National Institute of Statistics and Informatics directly after the disaster with close to 190,000 affected adults spread across all of Peru. Additionally, to identify the effects of displacement on well-being, I applied a customized, merged dataset of that survey and the National Census collected later in the same year. The chapter discusses the used data as well as the strengths and limitations of all chosen methods.