Doctoral Dissertation Research: Interrelations between Fear and Development Work in Guatemala: A Multi-Perspective Analysis

近年来，许多国家从大规模的国内冲突中脱颖而出。这些冲突后社会的一个共同特征是发展援助的大量涌入。这些国家的暴力遗留问题对发展项目的执行提出了独特的挑战。作为对长期系统性暴力的必然反应，恐惧在许多冲突后社会的公民中仍然是一个至关重要的问题。以前的研究调查了各种社会中恐惧产生的文化和历史过程。发展既是一个项目，也是一个过程，也受到了学术界的极大关注。较少研究的是恐惧在发展项目的执行和结果中所起的作用。利用冲突后危地马拉高地社区的案例研究，这篇博士论文研究项目将分析恐惧和发展如何以复杂的方式相互联系和相互作用。这项研究还将调查社区如何调和恐惧以改善生计。由于冲突后社会的发展倡议往往寻求促进机会和替代恐惧遗产的办法，因此，对希望的研究是任何对恐惧的研究所固有的。因此，地方一级的发展举措与以复原力和抵抗力形式出现的希望之间的关系是该项目的一个重要组成部分。承担这项研究的博士生将使用长期的人种学田野调查、半结构化访谈和档案研究来提供关于地方、国家和国际各级行为者对恐惧形成和被发展干预塑造的具体方式的看法和现实的深入数据。随后对收集的数据的分析和整合将包括三角测量，利用一系列收集程序将从各种来源收集的数据汇集在一起。学生期望三角测量将突出研究结果中的共性和差异，确认不同利益相关者关于恐惧如何影响当地社区内发展干预措施的概念化、通融和谈判的共同看法，并揭示脱节和争议点。恐惧与发展的界面代表着一个被忽视的研究领域，危地马拉和其他冲突后社会的学者和发展行为者可能会从中受益。通过将这两个以前完全不同的论述联系起来，该项目将揭示可能混淆地方一级发展倡议的潜在进程。这些调查结果将为发展理论和实践的研究提供独特的贡献，并将与危地马拉社区内和多个规模的跨国行为者网络内的几个支持者有关。通过确定恐惧与发展之间的相互关系，并审查发展实践的相应影响，本项目将确定更多一般性见解，然后将其应用于其他发展环境。确定与拉丁美洲和其他地域范围内的其他冲突后社会进行有益的比较，将对公共政策产生广泛的影响。此外，这一博士论文研究改进奖将有助于发展一个强大的、独立的研究事业。该奖项由NSF地理与空间科学项目和NSF国际科学与工程办公室共同支持。

In recent years numerous countries have emerged from large-scale, intra-state conflicts. A common characteristic in these post-conflict societies has been a noted influx of development aid. The legacy of violence in these countries presents unique challenges for the implementation of development projects. As an inevitable response to long-term systemic violence, fear remains a vital issue among the citizenry of many post-conflict societies. Previous research has investigated the cultural and historical processes which underpin the emergence of fear in various societies. As both a project and a process, development also has received a great deal of scholarly attention. What has been less studied is the role played by fear in the implementation and outcomes of development projects. Utilizing the case study of a highland community in post-conflict Guatemala, this doctoral dissertation research project will analyze the ways in which fear and development interrelate and act upon each other in complex ways. This study also will investigate how communities reconcile fear to improve livelihoods. Because development initiatives in post-conflict societies often seek to promote opportunities and alternatives to the legacies of fear, the study of hope is inherent to any study of fear. As such, the relationship between development initiatives at the local level and the emergence of hope, in the forms of resilience and resistance, is an important component of this project. The doctoral student undertaking this research will use long-term ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, and archival research to provide in-depth data on the perceptions and realities of actors at local, national, and international levels regarding the specific ways in which fear shapes and is shaped by development interventions. Subsequent analysis and integration of the collected data will incorporate triangulation, drawing together data collected from various sources using a range of collection procedures. The student expects that triangulation will highlight commonalities and contrasts in the findings, confirming shared perceptions and revealing points of disjuncture and contestation among various stakeholders regarding the ways in which fear impacts the conceptualization, accommodation, and negotiation of development interventions within local communities.The interface of fear and development represents an overlooked area of inquiry, with potential benefits for scholars and development actors in Guatemala and other post-conflict societies. By linking these two formerly disparate discourses, this project will reveal underlying processes that potentially confound development initiatives at the local level. Such findings will provide a unique contribution to research on the theory and practice of development and will be relevant to several constituencies, both within the communities in Guatemala and within the networks of transnational actors at multiple scales. By identifying interrelations between fear and development and by examining concomitant implications for the practice of development, this project will identify more general insights that can then be applied to other development settings. The identification of useful comparisons with other post-conflict societies both within Latin America and in other geographic contexts will have widespread implications for public policy. Furthermore, this Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award will contribute to the development of a strong, independent research career. This award is jointly supported by the NSF Geography and Spatial Sciences Program and the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering.