Doctoral Dissertation Research: Governance Without Government: Explaining Order in a Brazilian Favela

博士论文研究：没有政府的治理：解释巴西贫民窟的秩序

• 批准号: 0902216
• 负责人: John Jones
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-04-01 至 2011-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0902216&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Governance; Without

More than half of city dwellers worldwide, roughly 1.6 billion people, currently live in poverty. In Brazil, for example, 51.7 million people reside in favelas (i.e., urban slums), a figure equaling 36.6 percent of the country's total urban population. Though each favela community is unique, like impoverished communities elsewhere, most residents confront a lack of state resources (e.g., hospitals, schools, urban infrastructure) and rarely participate significantly in political processes. Far from devolving into massive, anarchic urban sprawls as one might expect, however, these communities uphold a striking level of social stability and political structure: researchers consistently report that social and political order is maintained in Brazilian slum communities, even when official governing bodies have no visible presence. Still unknown is how and why a majority of favelas, despite the limited presence of a visible governing authority, continue to function like any other Brazilian neighborhood. This doctoral dissertation research queries how governance (i.e., the coordination of complex social systems and steering of societal development) is produced and maintained in spaces where the institutions of government appear to be essentially absent. Through a case study of a favela in a midsized city in northeast Brazil (Fortaleza), and relying upon a mixed-methodological research design (e.g., semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation, archival research), this doctoral dissertation research seeks to explain the paradox of governance in ungoverned spaces. By introducing urban development research to theoretical contributions of research on governance, this study will help to not only resolve existing debates over social cohesion in non-governed areas, but also to provide greater clarity and substance to two dynamic social science traditions. For political theory, it will bring empirical transparency by considering a case (urban slums) that is being duplicated in thousands of cities across the globe. And for urban development, it will move beyond the confines of Brazil's more studied urban agglomerations, joining primary data with a theoretical investigation to understand socio-political order in one of the world's most rapidly growing communities. This research helps to explain political stability in slum communities and, even more importantly, will provided insights on what sorts of pragmatic measures might alleviate the effects of widespread poverty.This award is co-funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering.

目前，全球超过一半的城市居民，大约16亿人生活在贫困中。例如，在巴西，有5170万人居住在贫民窟（即城市贫民窟），这一数字等于该国城市总人口的36.6％。尽管每个贫民社区都是独一无二的，就像其他地方的贫困社区一样，大多数居民都面临缺乏国家资源（例如医院，学校，城市基础设施），并且很少参与政治过程。然而，这些社区并没有像人们期望的那样变成大规模的无政府状态城市蔓延，但是，这些社区维持着一个惊人的社会稳定和政治结构：研究人员始终报告说，即使官方管理机构没有明显的存在，巴西贫民窟社区仍在维持社会和政治秩序。仍然未知的是，尽管大多数贫民窟的存在有限，但大多数贫民窟仍在像其他巴西其他任何社区一样继续发挥作用。这项博士学位论文研究询问了如何在政府机构似乎根本不存在的机构中产生和维持治理（即，复杂的社会制度的协调和社会发展的指导）。通过对巴西东北地区中型城市（Fortaleza）的中型城市的案例研究，并依靠混合方法论研究设计（例如，半结构化访谈，焦点小组，参与者观察，档案研究），这项博士学位论文研究旨在解释未经书面遗留空间的治理态度。 通过将城市发展研究引入有关治理研究的理论贡献，这项研究将不仅有助于解决有关非政治领域社会凝聚力的现有辩论，而且还为两种动态的社会科学传统提供了更大的清晰度和实质性。对于政治理论，它将通过考虑一个在全球数千个城市中重复的案件（城市贫民窟）来带来经验透明度。对于城市发展，它将超越巴西所研究的城市群体的范围，并将主要数据与理论研究一起，以了解世界上最迅速发展的社区之一的社会政治秩序。 这项研究有助于解释贫民窟社区的政治稳定，甚至更重要的是，将提供有关哪种务实措施的见解可能会减轻广泛的贫困的影响。该奖项由NSF国际科学和工程办公室共同资助。