Technologies of Election: Gender, Media, and Neoliberal State Formation in Mongolia

在后社会主义时代的蒙古，妇女的社会地位似乎在下降。政治学家Susan S. Silbey和人类学家Manduhai Buyandelger将通过对蒙古2008年6月议会选举中女性候选人的环境和经历的民族志研究来调查这一现象。蒙古的一项新法律要求30%的候选人是女性。研究人员将记录政党为遵守这一要求而进行的活动，以及这些活动可能对蒙古社会对性别平等的理解产生或没有产生的影响。布兰德尔格博士将跟随女性候选人从地方一级初选的提名进入议会。这项研究将在首都乌兰巴托进行，同时还将前往两个省份进行比较，研究将持续8个月（2008年1月至8月）。调查的主要方法有：参与观察、深度访谈、电视、宣传册、广告、新闻等与选举有关的媒体文本分析等。研究者将对现任女性候选人、中央选举管理委员会办公室的参与者、政党成员、前任候选人等相关人士进行广泛的访谈。这个项目很重要，因为它为研究世界范围内更大的民主化对地方妇女生活的影响制定了一个新的框架。它还将进一步深入了解政治平等的性质和原因。

In post-socialist Mongolia, the social status of women appears to be declining. Political scientist Susan S. Silbey and anthropologist Manduhai Buyandelger will investigate this phenomenon through ethnographic research on the circumstances and experiences of female candidates running for parliament in Mongolia's June 2008 election. A new Mongolian law requires that 30 percent of the candidates be women. The researchers will document the activities of political parties geared to complying with the requirement and the influence these activities may or may not have on the understanding of gender equality in Mongolian society at large. Dr. Buyandelger will follow the female candidates as they advance from nominations in local-level primaries to parliament.The research will be carried out in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, supplemented with trips to two provinces for comparative purposes and will last for eight months (January-August 2008). The PI will employ three main methodologies: participant observation, in-depth interviews, and text analysis of election-related media such as TV programs, pamphlets, advertisements, and news articles. The researcher will conduct extensive interviews with a range of relevant people: current female candidates, participants of the National Election Committee office, members of the political parties, and previous candidates. The project is important because it develops a new framework for studying the influence of greater democratization worldwide on women's lives in local places. It also will bring further insights on the nature and causes of political equality.