Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Going Green: Conflicts over Ecologically Sensitive Mining in the Ecuadorean Andes

德克萨斯大学研究生特蕾莎·A·贝拉斯克斯将在查尔斯·R·黑尔博士的指导下，调查“绿色”发展计划对当地的影响，以及当地居民经常在支持方面存在分歧的原因。这项研究将在厄瓜多尔进行，加拿大IamGold公司在厄瓜多尔新政府的支持下，提议在厄瓜多尔的安第斯山脉建立一个对环境和社会负责的金矿。IAMGOLD承诺保护自然，并为农业家庭提供就业和社会服务。农村居民对煤矿的好处意见不一，冲突随之而来。已经出现了三个派别：支持该矿的一群居民，反对该矿的第二组居民，以及仍持矛盾态度的第三组居民。这些分歧正在改变这个农村社区的社会关系和政治动态，使其成为了解可持续发展项目对当地社会和政治影响的合适场所。Velásquez假设IamGold的计划可能会激起先前存在的社区分歧，并将它们转变为关于当地对该矿支持的辩论。她将使用人种学研究方法进行调查，包括参与者观察、口述历史访谈和家族史访谈。这些数据将让她研究土地和水资源的获取和控制之间的关系，意识形态，以及国家和社区关系的历史。这项研究很重要，因为它将为其他有兴趣了解社区对新发展项目的反应的研究人员提供一个概念和方法框架。此外，这项研究将使对促进自然资源冲突地区的和平感兴趣的政策分析人士受益。该奖项还支持NSF通过支持女性和墨西哥裔美国人进入社会科学研究来增加科学多样性的目标。

University of Texas graduate student, Teresa A. Velásquez, under the supervision of Dr. Charles R. Hale, will investigate the local impacts of "green" development schemes and the reasons why local residents often are divided in their support. The research will be carried out in Ecuador where Iamgold Corporation of Canada, with the support of Ecuador's new government, proposes to build an environmentally and socially responsible gold mine in the Ecuadorian Andes. Iamgold promises to protect nature and provide jobs and social services to agrarian families. Rural residents disagree about the benefits of the mine and conflict has ensued. Three factions have emerged: a group of residents who support the mine, a second group that opposes the mine, and a third group of residents who remain ambivalent. The divisions are transforming social relationships and changing political dynamics in this rural community, making it an approrpriate site for understanding the local social and political impacts of sustainable development projects. Velásquez hypothesizes that Iamgold's plans may animate pre-existing community divisions, and transform them into debates over local support for the mine. She will carry out her investigation using ethnographic research methods, including participant-observation, oral history interviews, and family history interviews. These data will allow her to examine the relationship between access and control over land and water resources, ideology, and the history of state-community relations. This research is important because it will provide a conceptual and methodological framework for other researchers interested in making sense of how communties respond to new development projects. Additionally, the research will benefit policy analysts interested in promoting peace in areas of natural resource conflict. The award also supports NSF's goals of increasing diversity in science by supporting the entrance of women and Mexican-Americans into social science research.