Doctoral Dissertation Research: Globalization Grounded: Land disputes and agrarian reform in Guatemala

危地马拉目前面临一个关键时刻。在一场使20万平民陷入死胡同的内战之后，人们谨慎乐观地认为，军方和游击队之间达成的和平协议将解决这个国家遗留下来的贫困和暴力问题。但是老问题很快又出现了。目前，危地马拉有1000多起土地纠纷，其中许多是暴力纠纷。本研究探讨了民主化和发展背景下危地马拉农民抵抗的范围和结果。本项目利用一系列定性研究方法，包括深度访谈、参与者观察和档案调查，旨在更好地了解土地改革是否以及如何促进农村主体纳入民主政体。此外，它还探讨了随着20世纪开始，随着商业农业的日益突出和信息作为推动经济增长的商品的日益重要，农民动员土地改革是否已经过时。这个项目将通过连接社会运动、民主转型和发展方面的社会学文献，对社会学知识作出贡献。关键的矛盾包括Barrington Moore提出的难题：民主化通常是以农民抗议的“消失”为前提的。相反，本文追求相反的假设：农民抗议实际上促进了民主化。在发展文学的社会学中，当全球化的讨论出现时，也出现了类似的悖论。大多数学者认为，随着全球化进程的加剧，农村主体日益边缘化。这个项目探讨了农民利用全球化创造的一些能量并以保留农民身份的方式参与全球经济的可能性。该项目的更广泛影响在于，它将促进一体化程度较低的农村行为者与城市研究人员之间在国家和国际范围内的合作。此外，它将有助于有关冲突后时代和国家治理的政策讨论。最后，它将阐明与拉丁美洲区域，也许还有世界其他地区有关的国家重建问题。

Guatemala currently faces a critical juncture. After a civil war that left 200,000 civilians dead-ended, there was guarded optimism that the peace accords reached between the military and the guerrillas would address this country's legacy of poverty and violence. But old problems soon re-emerged. Currently, there are over 1,000 land disputes in Guatemala - many of them violent. This study explores the spectrum and outcomes of peasant resistance in Guatemala in the context of democratization and development. Utilizing a range of qualitative research methods including in-depth interviews, participant observation and archival investigation, this project seeks to better understand if and how land reform can facilitate the inclusion of rural subjects into the democratic polity. Further, it explores whether peasant mobilization for land reform is obsolete as the twentieth century begins, with the increasing prominence of commercial agriculture and the growing centrality of information as the commodity that drives economic growth. This project will contribute to sociological knowledge by bridging the sociological literature on social movements, democratic transitions and development. Key tensions include the conundrum posed by Barrington Moore: that democratization is often premised on the "disappearance" of peasant protest. On the contrary, this dissertation pursues the converse hypothesis: that peasant protest actually facilitates democratization. In the sociology of development literature, a similar paradox presents itself when discussions of globalization arise. Most scholars agree that rural subjects are increasingly marginalized as globalization processes intensify. This project explores the possibility that peasants can harness some of the energy created by globalization and engage in the global economy in ways that preserve a peasant identity. The broader impact of this project is the collaboration it will facilitate between less-integrated rural actors and urban researchers on both a national and international scale. Further, it will contribute to policy discussions about governance in post-conflict eras and states. Finally, it will shed light on questions of state reconstruction relevant to the Latin American region and perhaps other parts of the world.