Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reconfigurations of the Commons -- Equity, Property Regimes, and Environmental Change in the Liangshan Mountains of China, 1930-1990

9406722 KASPERSON公平问题在管理环境管理机构的规则结构的形成中发挥着重要作用。然而，公平考虑如何影响机构发展，从而影响环境和社会成果的具体模式，这在很大程度上是一个不发达的研究领域。该项目将研究公平问题如何影响长期用于管理共同财产资源的机构形式，即共同财产资源管理系统的结构和绩效。这项研究将首先考察三种类型的公平概念(程序性、分配性和再分配性)如何体现在管理自然资源产权制度的规则结构的形成和运作中。其次，将分析由此产生的产权制度如何产生资源分配和环境变化的特定模式。这项研究将涉及两个不同民族的历史和比较研究，彝族(少数民族)和汉族(多数)位于环境退化的四川省凉山地区的贫困农业区，中国。该方法采用了多种方法，重点是通过调查、访谈以及审查村庄记录和法律文件来收集主要的定性和定量数据。这项研究将提供重要的新见解，即公平概念中的文化差异如何进入并塑造制度规则，从而对同一山区的环境和社会结果产生不同的影响。作为博士论文研究增强奖，该项目还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究事业。***

9406722 KASPERSON Equity concerns play an important role in the formation of rule structures which govern environmental management institutions. Yet how equity considerations influence institutional development, and thus specific patterns of environmental and social outcomes, is a largely underdeveloped arena of research. This project will study how equity concerns enter into the structure and performance of an institutional format that has long been utilized for managing common-pool resources, namely common property resource management systems. The study will first examine how three types of equity conceptions (procedural, distributive, and redistributive) are embodied in the formation and operation of rule structures governing natural resource property regimes. Second, an analysis of how the resultant property regimes produce specific patterns of resource distribution and environmental change will be carried out. The research will involve an historical and comparative study of two different ethnic groups, the Yi (the minority group) and the Han (the majority) in a poor agrarian region located in the environmentally-degraded Liangshan Mountains situated in Sichuan Province, China. The methodology uses a diversity of methods focussed on the collection of primary qualitative and quantitative data through surveys, interviews, and the examination of village records and legal documents. This study will provide important new insights as to how cultural differences in the conception of equity enter into and shape institutional rules, producing differential effects on the environmental and social outcomes within the same mountain landscape. As a doctoral dissertation research enhancement award, this project will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. ***