Doctoral Dissertation Research: Inequality in the Context of Liberalizing Agricultural Markets: Regional Patterns and Local Experiences in Mozambique

博士论文研究：农业市场自由化背景下的不平等：莫桑比克的区域模式和当地经验

• 批准号: 0401776
• 负责人: Robin Leichenko
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University New Brunswick
• 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 2005-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0401776&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Inequality; Context

The recently failed of international trade negotiations and the refusal of developed nations to eliminate market-distorting farm subsidies highlight the tenuous position of rural agrarian societies in many developing countries. While neoliberal development policy urges developing nations to open their markets and adopt trade-based growth strategies, regions and local communities often encounter new sources of risk through the process of economic liberalization. The changes associated with market liberalization can generate new landscapes of inequality by transforming or contributing to the breakdown of traditional social support networks. For women in particular, the loss of traditional networks can lead to increased hardship, because they are often primary caregivers as well as economic actors. This Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement project will examine the changing distribution of income and resources in rural Mozambique, where radical economic reforms are underway. The project will address the following questions: (1) What is the impact of contemporary market involvement on the distribution of resources and income across regions? (2) How do patterns of inequality vary across scales, and what do these spatial variations imply about differential vulnerability to negative market externalities? (3) How is social and economic inequality affected by gender and the structural changes within communities and households that accompany economic reforms? This study will use a multi-scalar approach to investigate market-inequality linkages. Geographic and multivariate statistical analyses will be used to examine regional patterns. Field observation, household surveys, and interviews will be used to explore local perspectives on inequalities as well as community-wide and gendered impacts associated with market involvement. The project is expected to demonstrate that market exposure and integration interact with multiple factors across geographic scales (such as global commodity prices, national politics, and local class and gender relationships) with different effects within and across regions, communities, and households. Furthermore, regional patterns of inequality, as measured by static income and infrastructure data, are not expected to correspond to local experiences.This project will incorporate an understanding of regional and local geographies into the investigation of how distributional inequities are produced and performed across space. It is expected to contribute to understanding of rural economies in the developing world by examining how market exposure and global-local economic linkages impact rural agrarian populations. It will explicitly investigate how experiences of economic change are influenced by gender, and it will integrate qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore the impacts of economic liberalization at the regional and local scale. The study will also contribute to contemporary geographical debates on the household as a scale of analysis. Findings from this study should help increase the success of targeted poverty alleviation programs by identifying those regions and households most likely to be marginalized by new forms of economic liberalization. The Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award also will provide support to a promising student to strengthen research skills and establish a strong independent research career.

最近国际贸易谈判的失败和发达国家拒绝取消扭曲市场的农业补贴，突显了许多发展中国家农村农业社会的脆弱地位。虽然新自由主义发展政策敦促发展中国家开放市场并采取以贸易为基础的增长战略，但在经济自由化的过程中，地区和地方社区往往会遇到新的风险来源。与市场自由化有关的变化可以改变或促成传统社会支助网络的崩溃，从而产生新的不平等现象。特别是对妇女来说，失去传统的人际网络会导致困难增加，因为她们往往是主要的照顾者和经济参与者。这个博士论文研究改进项目将研究莫桑比克农村收入和资源分配的变化，那里正在进行彻底的经济改革。该项目将解决以下问题：(1)当代市场参与对区域间资源和收入分配的影响是什么？(2)不同尺度的不平等模式如何变化，这些空间变化对市场负外部性的差异脆弱性意味着什么？(3)社会和经济不平等是如何受到性别以及伴随经济改革而来的社区和家庭结构变化的影响的？本研究将使用多标量方法来调查市场-不平等的联系。地理和多元统计分析将用于检查区域模式。实地观察、家庭调查和访谈将用于探索当地对不平等的看法以及与市场参与相关的社区范围和性别影响。该项目预计将证明，市场曝光和整合与跨地理尺度的多种因素（如全球商品价格、国家政治、地方阶级和性别关系）相互作用，在地区、社区和家庭内部和跨地区产生不同的影响。此外，以静态收入和基础设施数据衡量的区域不平等格局预计不符合地方经验。该项目将结合对区域和地方地理的理解，调查如何在空间上产生和执行分配不平等。预计它将通过研究市场风险和全球-地方经济联系如何影响农村农业人口，有助于了解发展中国家的农村经济。它将明确调查经济变化的经验如何受到性别的影响，并将整合定性和定量研究方法，以探索经济自由化在区域和地方范围内的影响。该研究还将有助于当代地理学关于家庭作为分析尺度的辩论。这项研究的结果应该有助于通过确定那些最有可能被新形式的经济自由化边缘化的地区和家庭来提高有针对性的扶贫计划的成功。博士论文研究改进奖也将为有前途的学生提供支持，以加强研究技能，建立强大的独立研究事业。