Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Social Dimensions of Public Policy: The Case of Costa Rica

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Graduate student Jeremy Rayner, supervised by Professor David Harvey, will study the opposition to telecommunications privatization in contemporary Costa Rica. In 2000, an unprecedented wave of protests and strikes stopped an attempt to partially privatize the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and end its monopolies in telecommunications. Today, telecommunications privatization is again central to an upsurge in social movement activity in the context of controversy over the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States, which stipulates the opening of Costa Rica's telecommunications markets. The researcher will conduct an ethnographic study of the organized opposition to telecommunications privatization, utilizing participant observation and interviews. Interviews will be conducted with representatives of four prominent categories of privatization opponents: students, urban and rural community activists, and ICE employees, in order to uncover the varied reasons and motives driving sustained opposition to privatization. Additional sources will be employed for information concerning the political, economic and historical context in which this movement has arisen. Interviews with privatization advocates will provide a basis for comparative evaluation of opponents' claims, while documentary sources will provide information on the economic performance of the ICE, its representation in Costa Rican public culture over time, and the content of key legislative debates.This research is important because the high degree of contention over telecommunications privatization in Costa Rica makes this study particularly well placed to address privatization's broader political and cultural dimensions. It has significant policy implications because it will add to understanding of the reasons behind widespread opposition to privatization in Latin America, and because it will contribute additional perspectives from a long process of debate in Costa Rica to the ongoing global policy deliberation over the provision of access to communications. This research will also make an important contribution to the education of a social scientist.