Explain what you think are the strong points of the study, Explain what are the weak points of the study, what are potential sources of biases, can you do comparisons, establish cause and effect and so on ... )

John G. Bretting and Diane-Michele Prindeville ENVIRONMENTALJUSTICE AND THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN ORGANIZING THEIR COMMUNITIES learning from the Field: Interviews with Activists RESEARCH DESIGN Twelve self~identified indigenous women of color (Chicanas and Native American) who are leaders in different community-based environmental organizations in New Mexico were interviewed. A snowball sample, based on reputation in the environmental organizing community, was employed to identify the study participants. The small sample (N = 12) prevents any generalizations to the larger population of environmental justice activists, but it does allow for detailed descriptions of the goals and strategies used by these women to promote environmental justice in New Mexico. Although comparisons across jurisdictions cannot be made, the research approach presented may serve as a model for others interested in studying grassroots organizations. The research findings can also assist other local groups in the formative stages. The interview guide (see appendix A) was designed to: {1) generate a history of the activists' participation in the environmental justice organization, (2) describe their role and inuence in decision making, and (3) examine their strategies and tactics. The activists were interviewed in person, either at their organizations' office, their home, or other public places in the greater Albuquerque, New Mexico, metropolitan area. The interviews took between forty- five and ninety minutes; three of them were conducted as a pilot study during November and December 1991. The remaining nine were conducted between October and December 1994. To guarantee the confidentiality of the respondents and their organizations, pseudonyms were used. 16 QUALITATIVE FIELD RESEARCH APPROACH Qualitative methods are often more useful than quantitative ones for investigating the hows and whys of human action. 17 This is especially relevant when the researcher has a limited population from which to draw a sampleas in the case of political elites. Long, open-ended interviews give the respondent non-standardized, special treatment. They stress the participant 5 definition of the problem, and allow her to communicate her notion of relevance. 18 More strikingly, qualitative research methods look for specific patterns of interrelationship between many categories. The patterns discovered assist in the development of theory and provide an understanding of the phenomena under investigation. 19 The research goal here is to develop as rich and accurate a profile as possible for each of the indigenous activists. Data are collected, focused, and analyzed. 20 The research findings are reported in two sections. Section one, "Indigenous Women Organizers Promoting Environmental Justice,\" profiles the activists and their community-organizing experience. Section two, "Political Activism from the Grassroots: Mobilizing Communities for Change,\" examines their specific organizational goals and decisionnmaking processes, and provides a detailed analysis of organizational strategies