Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Tunica Miracle, Sin and Savior in America's Ethiopia: A Poverty & Social Impact Analysis of Casino Gaming in Tunica, MS

在过去的十年里，赌场游戏开发在美国被广泛采用，作为促进就业增长和创造税收的一种手段，特别是在贫困地区。这一趋势在其总体经济和社会影响方面受到广泛关注，但其对生活在持续贫困地区的个人福利的影响仍然未知。本博士论文研究改进项目质疑赌场发展的好处在多大程度上延伸到居民贫困人口。具体而言，该研究将通过贫困和社会影响分析（PSIA）方法，评估赌场博彩业对居住在美国历史上最贫困的县之一图尼卡县（MS）的人的特征和分布影响。PSIA代表了一种多方面的、情境化的研究方法，其中采用混合方法来捕捉贫困表现和持续中的经济、社会、文化和政治关系的复杂性。因此，将采取多个理论出发点，涉及：(1)密西西比三角洲贫困的经济和政治历史，(2)图尼卡县贫困的种族，文化和空间结构，(3)赌场赌博作为经济增长战略和过去十年中密西西比行业的嵌入性，以及(4)赌场发展的部门，财政和分配影响。此外，将通过对当地贫困人口的生活条件和赌场影响的个人叙述，考虑关于贫穷和福利意义的其他观点。本研究将证明，在多个尺度上分析赌场游戏的影响，使用各种方法进行数据收集和检查，产生分歧和矛盾的结果。因此，我们对游戏作为一种经济增长策略是否成功的理解取决于分析的单位、所采用的方法或方法组合，以及该地区的特点。此外，将贫困和社会影响分析置于赌场开发区的经济和政治地理位置，将详细说明可疑的阶级政治，与该地区的种族关系历史一致，作为决定贫困结果的主要因素。因此，有人认为，图尼卡县赌场博彩的“奇迹”及其在改善贫困方面的效果衡量是由背景和概念驱动的——赌场博彩对图尼卡县贫困的影响是社会建构的，也是社会建构的。本博士论文研究将通过检查正在进行的开发活动的实际经济影响，推进我们对赌场游戏作为经济增长战略的价值的理解。它将讨论这些影响对居民和易受伤害人口的影响方式，这是一个有许多假设和轶事证据但缺乏事实知识的研究领域。这项研究将使社区团体和决策者深入了解经济增长与发展之间的关系及其为整个社会产生积极成果的能力，同时也针对人口中某一特定部分的需求。这种资料对于制定更有效的发展战略和确保以有意义的方式将利益分配给处境不利的人口的方法是必不可少的。此外，由世界银行（World Bank）定义并在发展中国家试行的PSIA，尚未在美国得到认真考虑。因此，这项研究将有助于科学研究，将影响分析综合方法的检验扩展到发达国家的贫困情况。作为博士论文研究改进补助金，该奖项还将为有前途的学生提供支持，使他们能够建立强大的独立研究事业。

Over the last decade, casino gaming development has been widely adopted in the US as a means for fostering employment growth and generating tax revenue, particularly in distressed areas. This trend has received widespread attention with regard to its overall economic and social effects, yet its impacts on the well-being of individuals living in persistently poor places remains unknown. This doctoral dissertation research improvement project questions the extent to which the benefits of casino development extend to resident poverty populations. Specifically, the study will assess the character and distributional impacts of the casino gaming industry on those residing in one of the nation's historically most impoverished counties, Tunica County (MS), by way of a poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA) methodology. PSIA represents a multi-faceted, contextual approach to research in which mixed methods are employed to capture the complexities of economic, social, cultural, and political relationships in the manifestation and persistence of poverty. As such, multiple theoretical points of departure will be taken, in relation to: (1) the economic and political history of poverty in the Mississippi Delta, (2) the racial, cultural, and spatial construction of poverty in Tunica County, (3) casino gaming as an economic growth strategy and the embeddedness of the industry in Mississippi over the last decade, and (4) the sectoral, fiscal, and distributional impacts of casino development. In addition, alternative perspectives on the meaning of poverty and well-being will be considered through individual accounts of living conditions and casino impacts by the local poverty population. This research will demonstrate that the analysis of casino gaming impacts at multiple scales, using a variety of methods for data collection and examination, produces divergent and contradictory results. Therefore, our understanding of the success of gaming as an economic growth strategy is dependent on the unit of analysis, the method or combination of methods applied, and the characteristics of the place. Further, situating poverty and social impact analysis in the economic and political geography of the casino development area will detail questionable politics of class, congruent with the region's history of race relations, as the primary factor in determining the poverty outcome. Thus, it is argued that the "miracle" of casino gaming in Tunica County and its measure of effect in ameliorating poverty is contextually and conceptually driven-the impact of casino gaming on Tunica County poverty is socially constructed in place as well as a social construction of place. This doctoral dissertation research will advance our understanding of the value of casino gaming as an economic growth strategy by examining the actual economic effects of an ongoing development activity. It will address the manner in which those effects impact resident and vulnerable populations, an area of study where many assumptions and anecdotal evidence exist, but where factual knowledge is lacking. This research will provide community groups and policy-makers with insight into the relationships between economic growth and development and their ability to produce positive outcomes for society as a whole while also targeting the needs of a specific segment of the population. Such information is essential in devising more effective development strategies and ways of ensuring that the benefits are distributed to underprivileged populations in a meaningful way. Further, PSIA, as defined by the World Bank and piloted around the developing world, has yet to be given serious consideration in the US case. Therefore, this study will contribute to scientific research by extending the testing of an integrated methodology for impact analysis to the poverty context of a developed nation. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement grant, this award will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.