Doctoral Dissertation Research: Non-Governmental Organizations, Communities, and Environmental Protection in the American West

博士论文研究：美国西部的非政府组织、社区和环境保护

• 批准号: 0000278
• 负责人: Nancy Peluso
• 金额: $ 1万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-05-01 至 2002-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0000278&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Non; Governmental

For decades, many environmental groups in the United States have focused on their efforts on what they perceived as the need to protect the public lands in the West from the people who live and work in the West. In recent years, however, an emerging set of environmental organizations in the western U.S. has challenged this perspective. These new non-governmental organizations (NGOs) support ideas of community conservation and participatory development long favored by international environmental organizations. These organizations attempt to build political alliances between rural businesses and environmental interests by framing the protection of nature as a legitimate economic concern and by decoupling the opposition between environmental protection and productive activity. The complex and dynamic relationship between environment and economy is particularly salient as the "Old West" of extractive industry increasingly is confronted by a "New West" that emphasizes tourism. In the wake of the western "jobs versus environment" debate of the early 1990s, these regional NGOs increasingly are reshaping western understandings of nature and work and the relationship between the two. This doctoral dissertation research project will explore how the categories of work and nature are negotiated and employed in the everyday practices of the staff of these new NGOs and the residents of the rural communities where their projects are located. This project will conduct detailed case studies of the actions of three western regional NGOs, the Sonoran Institute, the Sierra Business Council, and Shorebank Pacific. The research will focus on the origins of these new NGOs, the degree to which these organizations have adopted and adapted international models of conservation and development, and the impacts of the ideas and actions of these new NGOs on livelihoods and local identities in rural communities. Data and information will be gathered through eighteen months of multi-site ethnographic analyses. Research methods to be employed include participant observation; surveys and interviews with NGO leaders and staff as well as with local residents; and analyses of reports, internal organizational documents, newspaper articles, and election results. This project will help shed light on the specific practices and histories through which institutions and communities in the American West have perpetuated and transformed discourses of conservation and development. The project also will analyze the specific social and cultural practices through which understandings of environment, economy, and locality are constituted in the increasingly common "community-based conservation" projects appearing throughout the U.S. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

几十年来，美国的许多环保组织一直致力于保护西部公共土地免受在西部生活和工作的人们的侵害。 然而，近年来，美国西部一批新兴的环保组织对这一观点提出了挑战。 这些新的非政府组织（NGO）支持长期以来受到国际环境组织青睐的社区保护和参与式发展的理念。 这些组织试图通过将自然保护视为合法的经济问题并消除环境保护与生产活动之间的对立，在农村企业和环境利益之间建立政治联盟。 随着采掘业的“老西部”日益面临着强调旅游业的“新西部”，环境与经济之间复杂而动态的关系变得尤为突出。 继 20 世纪 90 年代初西方“工作与环境”辩论之后，这些区域性非政府组织正在日益重塑西方对自然和工作以及两者之间关系的理解。 本博士论文研究项目将探讨这些新非政府组织的工作人员及其项目所在农村社区的居民如何在日常实践中协商和运用工作和性质的类别。 该项目将对三个西部地区非政府组织——索诺兰研究所、塞拉商业委员会和太平洋海岸银行——的行动进行详细的案例研究。 研究将重点关注这些新非政府组织的起源、这些组织采用和适应国际保护和发展模式的程度，以及这些新非政府组织的想法和行动对农村社区生计和当地身份的影响。 数据和信息将通过十八个月的多地点民族志分析来收集。 所采用的研究方法包括参与观察；对非政府组织领导人和工作人员以及当地居民进行调查和访谈；以及对报告、内部组织文件、报纸文章和选举结果的分析。 该项目将有助于揭示美国西部的机构和社区延续和改变保护和发展话语的具体实践和历史。 该项目还将分析具体的社会和文化实践，通过这些实践，在美国各地日益常见的“基于社区的保护”项目中形成对环境、经济和地方性的理解。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。