Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender and Agricultural Entrepreneurialism in Market-Garden Economics

经济特征的变化不仅影响经济活动的地理分布，也影响不同人群参与不同类型活动的形式和性质。在西非，传统上在花园种植的农产品的生产和销售是由妇女进行的，但20世纪经济和社会结构的变化改变了男性和女性在这些过程中的作用。这个博士论文研究项目将考察布基纳法索西南部Bobo-Dioulasso地区市场园艺的社会历史，通过三个关键的变革时期：(1)20世纪20年代和30年代，传教士引入了欧洲蔬菜、种植技术和饮食习惯；(2) 20世纪70年代的干旱年份，当时外国捐助者资助了农业多样化和灌溉项目；(3)当前世界银行授权的结构调整和紧缩计划。人种学数据收集技术将在研究区域的三个园艺村和中心市场使用，以便获得关于商业蔬菜生产中使用的土地、劳动力和技术的信息。这些数据将由园丁和商人、乡村长老、政府和非政府官员提供的信息加以补充。除了增进关于非洲粮食生产经济变化的经验知识外，该项目还将有助于从理论上理解宏观经济条件、社会意识形态、地方实践和性别关系之间的动态相互作用。作为博士论文改进奖，该奖项也将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

The changing character of economies not only affects the geographic distribution of economic activities, it also affects the form and nature of participation by different groups of people in different types of activities. In western Africa, the production and marketing of produce grown in gardens traditionally was conducted by women, but changes in economic and social structures during the 20th Century have altered the roles of men and women in these processes. This doctoral dissertation research project will examine the social history of market gardening in the Bobo-Dioulasso region of southwestern Burkina Faso through three critical eras of change: (1) the 1920s and 1930s, when missionaries introduced European vegetables, cultivation techniques, and dietary habits; (2) the drought years of the 1970s, when foreign donors funded agricultural diversification and irrigation projects; and (3) the current period of World Bank-mandated structural adjustment and austerity programs. Ethnographic data-collection techniques will be used in three gardening villages and in central marketplaces of the study area in order to obtain information about land, labor, and technology employed in commercial vegetable production. These data will be complemented by information from gardeners and traders, village elders, and government and non-governmental officials. In addition to advancing empirical knowledge about changing African food-production economies, this project will contribute to theoretical understandings of the dynamic interaction among macroeconomic conditions, social ideologies, and local practices and gender relations. As a doctoral dissertation improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.