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

全世界超过一半的城市居民，大约16亿人，目前生活在贫困中。例如，在巴西，有5170万人居住在贫民窟(即城市贫民窟)，这一数字相当于该国城市总人口的36.6%。虽然每个贫民窟社区都是独一无二的，就像其他地方的贫困社区一样，但大多数居民面临着缺乏国家资源(如医院、学校、城市基础设施)的问题，很少显著参与政治进程。然而，这些社区远没有像人们预期的那样陷入大规模、无政府状态的城市扩张，而是维持着惊人的社会稳定和政治结构：研究人员一直报告称，巴西贫民窟社区维持着社会和政治秩序，即使官方管理机构没有明显的存在。仍然不清楚的是，尽管看得见的管理当局有限，但大多数贫民窟是如何以及为什么继续像巴西其他社区一样发挥作用的。这篇博士论文的研究质疑治理(即，复杂社会系统的协调和社会发展的指导)是如何在政府机构似乎基本上缺失的领域产生和维持的。通过对巴西东北部一个中等城市(福塔莱萨)的贫民窟的案例研究，并依靠混合方法的研究设计(例如，半结构化访谈、焦点小组、参与者观察、档案研究)，这项博士论文研究试图解释在无管理空间中治理的悖论。通过将城市发展研究引入治理研究的理论贡献，这项研究不仅将有助于解决关于非治理地区社会凝聚力的现有争论，而且还将为两个动态的社会科学传统提供更大的清晰度和实质内容。对于政治理论，它将通过考虑一个在全球数千个城市重复出现的案例(城市贫民窟)来带来经验上的透明度。对于城市发展，它将超越巴西更受研究的城市群的限制，将原始数据与理论调查结合起来，以了解这个世界上增长最快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性，更重要的是，将提供关于什么样的务实措施可以减轻普遍贫困的影响的见解。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室联合资助。

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.