Dissertation Research: Ethnographic Research at the Alcantara Launching Center: An Inquiry into the Politics of Space, Race, Technology and Nation in Brazil

论文研究：阿尔坎塔拉发射中心的民族志研究：巴西空间、种族、技术和民族政治调查

• 批准号: 0350036
• 负责人: Jean Comaroff
• 金额: $ 1.19万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-03-01 至 2006-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0350036&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Ethnographic; Alcantara; Launching

This is a Science and Technology Studies dissertation improvement grant. The researcher will investigate contemporary politics of big science, development and difference in Brazil using as an object of study the Alcantara Launching Center (CLA), an ambitious government project that was intended to help Brazil win "technological independence" when it was built in the early 1980s. Funds from the grant will support travel to Brazil, as well as room, board, and travel within the country. By 2000, Brazil had not successfully launched a satellite from the base of CLA, and there was widespread opposition in Brazil to its planned use by foreign governments. A movement to reclaim the land for displaced Afro-Brazilian communities had gained prominent support. Alcantara, the poor fishing region where the CLA is located, became a flashpoint for debates about the character and future of Brazil as a multi-ethnic and technologically developing nation-state. Through ethnographic research into the conflicts over Alcantara's fate, and building on four months of preliminary ethnographic research, this researcher will use ethnographic and archival methods to examine three groups: 1) NGOs and political organizations involved in the conflicts over the CLA; 2) scientists and others working in or on issues relating to the base; 3) and communities affected or displaced by the base. By investigating the politics of an embattled big science project in a context of relative technological disadvantage and longstanding technological ambition, this project is expected to offer an ethnographic vantage on the cultural specificities and lived- effects of some of the most contentious changes facing contemporary Brazil--changes that are similar to those faced in much of the developing world.

这是一个科学和技术研究论文改进补助金。 研究人员将以阿尔坎塔拉发射中心（CLA）为研究对象，调查巴西当代大科学，发展和差异的政治，这是一个雄心勃勃的政府项目，旨在帮助巴西赢得“技术独立”，当时它建于20世纪80年代初。 赠款的资金将用于支持前往巴西的旅行，以及国内的食宿和旅行。 到2000年，巴西还没有成功地从CLA基地发射过一颗卫星，巴西国内普遍反对外国政府计划使用它。一项为流离失所的非洲裔巴西人社区收回土地的运动获得了显著支持。CLA所在的贫穷渔业区阿尔坎塔拉（Alcantara）成为关于巴西作为一个多民族和技术发展中民族国家的性质和未来的争论的热点。通过对阿尔坎塔拉命运冲突的民族志研究，并在四个月的初步民族志研究的基础上，本研究员将使用民族志和档案的方法来研究三个群体：1）参与CLA冲突的非政府组织和政治组织; 2）科学家和其他工作或与基地有关的问题; 3）受基地影响或流离失所的社区。 通过在相对技术劣势和长期技术雄心的背景下调查一个四面楚歌的大科学项目的政治，该项目预计将提供一个民族志的Vantage，对文化的特殊性和生活-当代巴西面临的一些最有争议的变化的影响-变化是类似的，在许多发展中国家面临的。