Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Networks and Social Capital: New Techniques for Studying Marginalized Populations at Risk

博士论文研究：社交网络和社会资本：研究处于危险中的边缘化人群的新技术

• 批准号: 0753231
• 负责人: James Jones
• 金额: $ 1.43万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-01 至 2010-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0753231&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Social; Networks

In China, HIV infections have reportedly risen by 30 percent a year since 1994 and tremendous concern has grown over the burgeoning epidemic. In this research, graduate student Yeon Yu, supervised by Dr. James Holland Jones, will undertake research on the social networks of a marginalized population thought to be involved in HIV transmission. Identifying these networks is critical to providing a new lens to examine disease transmission. Equally important, the research will contribute to developing new methodologies for studying marginalized populations.In addition to the network data, the researcher will collect information about the marginalized population's histories, the forces influencing their decisions to engage in dangerous work, and how these forces have been influenced by the massive transformations stemming from China's neoliberalism since the late 1970s. Among these forces are socioeconomic environments, the political economy, personal networks, as well as state policies. The project's methodological contribution comes from deploying new techniques for identifying the properties of cluster boundaries and illustrating the social space of hidden populations. This ethnographic application of Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) in China may ultimately become the prototype for applying RDS in studying other hidden or sensitive populations. The research data will be used as empirically grounded parameters to drive mathematical models for epidemiological purposes. These research results will ultimately benefit marginalized people at risk as well as populations at large.

据报道，自1994年以来，中国艾滋病毒感染人数每年增加30%，这一迅速蔓延的流行病引起了人们的极大关注。在这项研究中，研究生Yeon Yu将在James Holland Jones博士的指导下，对被认为与艾滋病毒传播有关的边缘人群的社会网络进行研究。识别这些网络对于提供检查疾病传播的新视角至关重要。同样重要的是，这项研究将有助于发展研究边缘人口的新方法。除了网络数据，研究人员还将收集边缘化人口的历史信息，影响他们决定从事危险工作的力量，以及这些力量如何受到20世纪70年代末以来中国新自由主义的大规模变革的影响。这些力量包括社会经济环境、政治经济、个人网络以及国家政策。该项目的方法论贡献来自于部署新技术来识别集群边界的属性，并说明隐藏人群的社会空间。该方法在中国的民族志应用可能最终成为将RDS应用于其他隐藏或敏感人群研究的原型。这些研究数据将用作基于经验的参数，以驱动用于流行病学目的的数学模型。这些研究结果最终将使处于危险中的边缘人群以及广大人口受益。