Dissertation Research: Forestry Culture, Language, Institutions and Power in Mexican Forest Management

本论文研究的重点是造林学在墨西哥瓦哈卡社区森林管理政治辩论中的作用。最近的实验室科学民族志研究强调了实验室文化的作用。这项研究建立在这些方法来看看在外地，而不是在研究实验室的森林管理，使用造林学作为透镜，看看林务员和非林务员之间的相互作用。在过去20年中，世界范围内的森林管理责任从国家森林服务部门转移到森林社区和私人业主。墨西哥与这些趋势相似，超过80%的林地由社区和市政当局拥有。林务员接受了在官僚机构中有效工作的培训，但不习惯与私人土地所有者和社区成员沟通。本研究旨在确定哪种修辞技巧在传播森林知识和为森林管理活动建立广泛的合法性方面最有效。一个特别的重点将是在多大程度上将林业人员和非林业人员关于森林的知识纳入管理建议。这项研究将结合墨西哥造林和国家林业机构的历史，与当地社区的历史，以便将当今有关森林管理的政治辩论的背景。它将追踪林务员使用的话语之间的联系，并为林务员创造技术知识，权力和合法性。它还将研究不同利益攸关方的历史经验和机构所在地如何影响他们对森林的了解，他们如何主张和支持自己的知识形式以及自己的森林议程。

The focus of this dissertation research is the role of silviculture in political debates over community forest management in Oaxaca, Mexico. Recent ethnographic studies of laboratory science have highlighted the role of laboratory cultures. This study builds upon these approaches to look at forest management in the field, rather than in the research laboratory, using silvicultural science as lens to look at interactions between foresters and non-foresters. In the last 20 years there has been a worldwide shift in forest management responsibility from state forests services to forest communities and private owners. Mexico parallels these trends, and over 80% of forest land is owned by communities and municipalities. Foresters have been trained to work effectively in bureaucracies, but are not used to communicating with private land owners and community members. This research seeks to pinpoint what kinds of rhetorical techniques are most effective in communicating knowledge about the forest and building broad based legitimacy for forest management activities. A particular focus will be the extent to which foresters' and non-foresters knowledge about the forest is integrated into management recommendations. This research will tie together a history of Mexican silviculture and state forestry institutions, with a history of local communities, so as to put into context the present-day political debates about forest management. It will trace the connections between the discourses used by foresters, and the creation of technical knowledge, power and legitimacy for foresters. It will also look at how different stakeholders' historical experiences and institutional locations affect their knowledge about the forest, how they argue for and support their own forms of knowledge, and their own agendas in the forest.