Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transnational Activism Oil Politics and Environmental Justice in Ecuador

本研究计划检视厄瓜多基层活动团体和非政府组织（ngo）如何动员跨国网络向政府和石油业施压。本项目比较了厄瓜多尔四个社区对建设石油管道（OCP：拉戈阿格里奥、明多、埃斯梅拉达斯和基多）的支持和争议性联盟、需求和策略。该项目旨在了解石化过程中不同地点的这些不同社区如何超越国界，向国际机构施压，要求在地方和国家层面的索赔要求中获得支持和援助。该项目还比较了地方激进组织的活动在多大程度上推动了一个更大的、意想不到的目标：增加和大量的社区一级参与，并评估了跨国相互联系和国际监管制度（如世界银行）对地方参与的影响。这项民族志研究调查了公民社会如何推动成为定义正义、发展和民主的代理人，并展示了它在自治中的决策能力和作用。项目聚焦于以下问题：1)厄瓜多尔的社区团体、非政府组织和国际非政府组织的身份、对手、目标和诉求是什么？他们是如何合作或排斥对方的？2)利益相关者如何构建环境和社会影响及发展问题，以吸引当地基础团体、跨国支持网络和国际机构？3)在社区和自然资源的决策中，提出要求和/或要求发挥更大作用的组织是针对哪些地方、区域和国际行动者？该项目的更广泛影响包括利用研究成果，向世界银行和国际货币基金组织等国际机构以及大型项目的跨国融资机构通报其政策对当地社区的影响。研究结果还将使研究人员和决策者了解环境正义和社会政治发展对政治参与的影响。研究结果将在社区讲习班上提出，并在大众印刷媒介以及学术期刊和多学科专业会议上发表。

This research project examines how grassroots activist groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Ecuador mobilize transnational networks to pressure the state and the oil industry. This project compares the supportive and contentious alliances, demands, and tactics of four communities in Ecuador as they respond to the construction of the oil pipeline Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP:Lago Agrio, Mindo, Esmeraldas, and Quito. The project seeks to understand how these diverse communities at different locations in the petrochemical process transcend national borders to press international institutions for support and assistance in demanding local and national -level claims. The project compares also the extent to which the activities of local activist organizations may advance a greater, unintened goal: Increased and substantial community-level participation and assesses the consequences of increased transnational interconnectedness and international regulatory regimes, such as the World Bank, and international on local participation. This ethnographic research investigates how civil society pushes to become the agent that defines justice, development, and democracy and that demonstrates its decision-making capacities and role in self-governance. The project focuses on the following questions: 1) What are the identities, adversaries, goals, and demands of the community groups, NGOs and INGOs in Ecuador? How do they collaborate or marginalize each other? 2) How do stakeholders frame issues of environmental and social impacts and development to appeal to a local base groups, multinational support networks, and international institutions? 3) On what local, regional, and international actors are the organizations making claims and/or demanding a greater role in community and natural resource decision-making? This project's broader impacts include the utility of research findings to inform international institutions, such as the World Bank and IMF as well as multinational financiers of large-scale projects about the impact of their policies on local communities. Research results also will inform researchers and policymakers about the consequences for political participation of environmental justice and social-political development will be presented at community workshops and published in popular print media, as well as academic journals and multidisciplinary professional conferences.