Mixed-Methods Approaches to Understanding Climate Change Risks to Agrarian-Based Livelihoods

Abstract

In the study conducted by Benjamin P. Warner, Christopher Kuzdas, Mariel Yglesias, and Daniel Childers, we defined the processes by which Costa Rica’s largest agrarian rural development program ceased meeting the needs of its most vulnerable farmers. We focused on the actions of groups of farmers and described how they were able to redistribute climate change and economic risks. Here, I describe how we did this. This study may be considered multi-methodological, as it involved collecting and analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data and integrating the two forms of data to produce results. Mixed methods allowed us to avoid the overly focused research that may have resulted if others did not vet the findings from any one method. I conclude by describing basic tenets of mixed-methods research on climate change risks to agrarian-based livelihoods.

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