Doctoral Dissertation Improvment Grant: Metrics and Democratization: The Role of Monitoring Technologies in Democratic Governance Reform in El Salvador

研究生Jason Cross将在William M. O'Barr博士的指导下，对监测技术（如监测和评估程序）在实施民主治理改革中的作用进行研究。虽然政府、非政府组织（ngo）和外国援助机构经常使用监测技术来评估机构改革，但很少有人注意到监测实践本身对民主治理的社会进程的影响。这项研究将在萨尔瓦多进行。研究人员将把重点放在在设计和执行民主改革方面起核心作用的机构和非政府组织，以及正在进行改革的三个城市的地方政治行动者。本研究的目的是研究监测技术对民主治理中不同参与者的制作、使用和意义，以了解这些技术如何影响当地政治文化，并促进特定治理形式的全球化。因此，研究人员将使用民族志、历史和法律方法，对公民参与、问责制和法治项目中监测技术的构建、流通和使用进行定性分析。仔细研究萨尔瓦多民主化的遗产是很重要的，因为该国经常成为冲突后民主化的典范和具有全球影响的权力下放政策的实验室。这项研究将确定全球治理话语扎根的方式，并适应对民主是什么或可以是什么有不同概念的特定地区。此外，它将提供一个深入和系统的检查法律和技术治理实践如何出现在一起，并依赖于彼此的可靠性和有效性，因为他们重新工作的社会关系，历史遗产和期望的未来。这项研究也将有助于社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Jason Cross, supervised by Dr. William M. O'Barr will undertake research on the role of monitoring technologies, such as monitoring and evaluation procedures, in the implementation of democratic governance reforms. Although governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and foreign-aid agencies routinely use monitoring technologies to assess institutional reform, little attention has been paid to the effects of the monitoring practices themselves on the social process of democratic governance. The research will be carried in El Salvador. The researcher will focus on agencies and NGOs that have been central in the design and implementation of democratic reforms, and local political actors in three municipalities undergoing reform. The research objectives are to examine the making, use, and meaning of monitoring technologies for diverse participants in democratic governance, in order to understand how these technologies affect local political culture and facilitate the globalization of specific forms of governance. Therefore, the researcher will use ethnographic, historical and legal methods to conduct a qualitative analysis of the construction, circulation, and use of monitoring technologies in programs addressing citizen participation, accountability, and rule of law.Examining closely the legacy of democratization in El Salvador is important because the country often serves as a model for post-conflict democratization and as a laboratory for decentralization policies with global reach. This study will identify ways in which global discourses of governance take root and are adapted to particular locales with diverse notions of what democracy is, or can be. Additionally, it will provide an in-depth and systematic examination of how legal and technological governance practices emerge together and depend on each other for their reliability and efficacy, as they rework social relations, historical legacies and desired futures. The research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.