DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Participation in Community-Based Timber Projects in Brazil

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This dissertation research by a cultural anthropology student asks how demographic, cultural, economic and political structures affect which community members participate in timber development projects in Acre, Brazil. Two projects involving the descendents of migrant rubber tappers will be studied. The benefits and costs of various project activities will be assessed, and the role of individual choice in the project activities will be studied. Multiple sources of data will be gathered, including informal interviews, observations, censuses, and formal reports. Hypotheses will be tested relating individual level variables to project participation. The student and her Brazilian colleagues will advance our understanding of participatory development by revealing the structural relations which give rise to variations in community members' participation in projects, and will illustrate how social actors interpret, negotiate, resist and transform projects through their involvement. By looking at the heterogeneous ways in which individuals participate and derive benefits and costs, the research will move beyond community -level measure and provide important insight to planners and local development organizations concerns with promoting participatory timber management. In addition the project advances our knowledge of this important region of the world, and contributes to the training of a young social scientist.