Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gendered Empowerment of Community Organizations in Ahmedabad, India: Toward a Socio-Spatial Model of Sustainable Civil Society Participation

博士论文研究：印度艾哈迈达巴德社区组织的性别赋权：建立可持续民间社会参与的社会空间模型

• 批准号: 0902222
• 负责人: Lois Takahashi
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 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: 2009-08-15 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0902222&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Gendered; Empowerment

Reliance on decentralization has meant that central and local governments across the globe have increased their dependence on non-public provision of key public services. This trend is growing in the slum-upgrading sector in the developing world, where nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and local civil society groups have taken on roles not only as community organizers but also as developers of large-scale public service and housing projects. In India, where slums now account for 25 percent of all urban housing, the Ahmedabad Slum Networking Program (SNP) is frequently cited for "best-practices" in decentralized service delivery, where the local government relies heavily on local community-based organizations (CBOs) to provide and maintain infrastructure in their neighborhoods. Researchers and decision makers still know little about the socio-spatial dimensions that impede CBOs or enable them to survive, however, especially with reductions in funding, organizational training by NGOs, or local government incentives to participate. To address this gap, this doctoral dissertation research project begins with the assumption that organizational structures -- especially with respect to gendered leadership -- lead to different abilities to make choices and act effectively. The primary hypothesis on which the doctoral candidate will focus her research is that it is this ability to make choices and act on them that determines whether a community-based organization remains active or becomes defunct. The student will employ a mixed methods approach of informational interviews with key informants, in-depth interviews with NGO management and field staff, and a survey of CBO officers and general committee members to gather critical information needed to test this hypothesis.Despite critical research regarding the disconnect between the benefits of anti-poverty work and gender-specific empowerment programs, little research has focused on how this disconnect also can impact development at the intermediate scale of community-based civil society institutions. Much existing research has focused on large structural forces, such as the globalizing economy, or micro-level individual behavior, such as whether women feel empowered by participating in programs. By focusing directly on community institutions, this project will enhance basic understanding of the ways that individual behavior and structural forces influence the sustainability of local community-based organizations. Consequently, this research will address important conceptual gaps regarding community-based institutions. In addition to potential theoretical contributions, the study results will be useful to practitioners and policy makers by highlighting the potential strengths and pitfalls of community-based organizations for providing urban social service and infrastructure provision over both the shorter and longer terms. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. This award to support research in India is jointly supported The NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.

对权力下放的依赖意味着，全球各地的中央和地方政府加大了对非公共机构提供关键公共服务的依赖。在发展中国家的贫民窟改造领域，这种趋势正在增长，在那里，非政府组织和当地民间社会团体不仅担任社区组织者的角色，而且还担任大型公共服务和住房项目的开发商。在印度，贫民窟目前占所有城市住房的25%，艾哈迈达巴德贫民窟联网项目（SNP）经常被认为是分散式服务提供的“最佳实践”，在该项目中，地方政府严重依赖当地社区组织（cbo）为其社区提供和维护基础设施。然而，研究人员和决策者仍然对阻碍cbo生存的社会空间维度知之甚少，特别是在资金减少、非政府组织的组织培训或地方政府鼓励参与的情况下。为了解决这一差距，这个博士论文研究项目首先假设组织结构——特别是关于性别领导——导致不同的能力做出选择和有效行动。这位博士候选人将重点研究的主要假设是，正是这种做出选择并采取行动的能力决定了一个以社区为基础的组织是保持活跃还是走向消亡。学生将采用混合方法，对关键线人进行信息访谈，对非政府组织管理人员和实地工作人员进行深入访谈，并对CBO官员和一般委员会成员进行调查，以收集检验这一假设所需的关键信息。尽管对反贫困工作的好处与性别赋权项目之间的脱节进行了批判性研究，但很少有研究关注这种脱节如何影响以社区为基础的民间社会机构的中等规模发展。许多现有的研究都集中在大的结构性力量上，比如全球化的经济，或者微观层面的个人行为，比如女性是否通过参与项目感到自己被赋予了权力。通过直接关注社区机构，该项目将加强对个人行为和结构力量影响当地社区组织可持续性的方式的基本理解。因此，这项研究将解决社区机构方面的重要概念差距。除了潜在的理论贡献外，研究结果还将通过突出社区组织在短期和长期提供城市社会服务和基础设施方面的潜在优势和缺陷，对实践者和决策者有用。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。该奖项旨在支持印度的研究，由美国国家科学基金会地理与空间科学项目和美国国家科学基金会国际科学与工程办公室共同支持。