DDIG: Public Land and the American Political Imagination: An Ethnographic Study of Governance and Democracy in the United States

美国西部山区土地管理局管理的公共土地使用冲突威胁到公共土地上脆弱生态系统的健康以及邻近农村社区的社会和经济福祉。 这些冲突的基础是对景观的不同看法以及对“公共”含义的不同理解。“社会文化人类学的一名学生的这项研究提供了对犹他州南部大楼梯-埃斯卡兰特国家纪念碑冲突政治的详细民族志分析，自1996年纪念碑建立以来，这一地点的冲突一直激烈而持久。 该研究将审查从社区内到地方，州和国家层面的冲突的政治动态，使用参与者观察，正式和非正式访谈，档案研究和文件分析相结合。该项目将分析冲突随着时间的推移，以阐明公民与美国的联邦，多层次，民主政府和政治理想，告知这一过程的过程。 更广泛的影响：这项研究对那些寻求了解和改善美国自然资源冲突的人具有实际意义。 更好地了解大阶梯-埃斯卡兰特国家纪念碑管理冲突的政治动态，可用于帮助缓解使用公共土地的冲突，并为公共土地管理政策提供信息。 这项研究也有理论意义，为那些寻求更好地了解美国的政治理想和美国的政治制度，以确定民主变革的轨迹，分析制度的重新调整，是在社会中发生的政府的作用缩小，并评估有关批发出口到其他国家这一制度的假设。 这项研究还将有助于人类学博士生的教育。

Conflict over the use of public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management in the American Intermountain West threaten both the health of fragile ecosystems on public lands and the social and economic well-being of adjacent rural communities. These conflicts are underlain by different perceptions of the landscape as well as by different understandings of the meaning of "public." This research by a student in Sociocultural Anthropology provides a detailed ethnographic analysis of the politics of the conflict over the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, a site where conflict has been intense and persistent since the creation of the Monument in 1996. The study will examine the political dynamics of the conflict from the intra-community to the local, state, and national levels using a combination of participant observation, formal and informal interviews, archival research, and document analysis. The project will analyze the conflict over time in order to illuminate the process by which citizens relate to the federal, multi-level, democratic government of the United States and the political ideals that inform this process. Broader Impacts: This study has practical significance for those seeking to understand and ameliorate natural resource conflicts in the United States. An improved understanding of the political dynamics of the conflict over the management of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument can be used to help mitigate conflicts over the use of public land and to inform public land management policy. The study also has theoretical significance for those seeking a better understanding of American political ideals and the American political system in order to identify loci of democratic change, to analyze the institutional realignment that is occurring in society as the role of government narrows, and to evaluate assumptions about the wholesale export of this system to other countries. The study will also contribute to the education of a doctoral student in Anthropology.