Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Mutual Impacts of Cross-Cultural Contacts

研究生Andrea Ballestero将在George E. Marcus博士的指导下，对拉丁美洲如何将水视为一种商品进行认知和管理进行研究。水作为一项基本权利和水作为一种商品之间的区别象征着公共领域和私人领域的分离和政治配置，以及对自然和权利的不同伦理投资。在拉丁美洲的水政治中，由于专家知识的标准化，这种区别正在变得模糊。Ballestero将调查拉丁美洲水管理中最佳实践和专家知识观念的变化，在经济改革浪潮中，当地政府日益缩小公共水务设施的规模，并采用科学工具进行水规划。这项研究将在巴西的塞雷<e:1>和哥斯达黎加的圣何塞进行。研究人员将采用一系列的民族志数据收集策略，包括参与观察、深度访谈、档案研究和调查。她的重点将是比较水资源专家如何在利用来自当地和国际参考框架的相互矛盾的信息的同时，制定一套技术法律政策指导方针。该项目的主要目标是调查a)水专家如何产生、动员和协商水政策专业知识，b)这些谈判是否改变了对水权的理解，以及c)稀缺和质量的特定当地环境条件如何影响专家政策工具的选择。这项研究很重要，因为它将为国际科学与地方环境管理之间关系的社会科学理论做出贡献，使社会科学承担起当代重要问题。这项研究也将对社会科学家的教育作出重大贡献。

Graduate student Andrea Ballestero, supervised by Dr. George E. Marcus, will undertake research on change in how water is perceived and managed as a commodity in Latin America. The distinction between water as a basic right and water as a commodity has been symbolic of the separation and political configuration of the public domain and the private domain, and of different ethical investments in nature and rights. This distinction is being blurred in Latin American water politics through the standardization of expert knowledge. Ballestero will investigate changing notions of best practices and expert knowledge in the management of water in Latin America where, in waves of economic reform, local governments have increasingly reduced the size of public water utilities and adopted scientific tools for water planning. The research is to be conducted in Ceará, Brazil, and San Jose, Costa Rica.The researcher will employ a range of ethnographic data collection strategies including participant observation, in-depth interviewing, archival research, and surveys. Her focus will be on comparing how water experts produce a single set of techno-legal policy guidelines while making use of conflicting information from local and international frames of reference. The main objectives of this project are to investigate a) how water experts produce, mobilize, and negotiate water policy expertise, b) whether or not these negotiations change how water rights are understood, and c) how specific local environmental conditions of scarcity and quality influence expert policy tool choices. The research is important because it will contribute to social science theory about the relationships between international science and local environmental management, bringing social science to bear on issues of great contemporary importance. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.