Doctoral Dissertation Research: Legal Practice and the Production of Licit Subjects in Thailand

芝加哥大学博士生Malavika Reddy在John D.凯利将调查那些在一个国家几乎没有法律的地位的人，尽管如此，他们仍然能够在该国的法院就劳动法提出索赔。本研究将探讨所研究的这类案件的核心矛盾，即它们根据劳动法裁定索赔人的权利，而不裁定索赔人在场的合法性。雷迪假设，法律的过程伪造了一个同时非法但合法的地位，她提出了一个术语，“合法归属。“研究将在泰国进行，研究人员将重点关注缅甸移徙工人提出的法律的要求。雷迪将使用各种人种学方法，包括参与观察，访谈和焦点小组，以及话语分析，以观察是否，以及如何，合法身份的外国工人在泰国法律的系统内形成。详细的现场笔记和成绩单将集中在话语的特定时刻，当演员辩论什么是权威的法律的实践进行分析。这将使人们有可能将看似属于法律运作内部的讨论与泰国民族国家内部出现的合法归属形式这一更广泛的现象联系起来。通过调查外国工人如何能够为自己的利益调动法律，这项研究将分析法律的制度如何影响以及如何受到已经成为全球资本主义标志的人员和资本跨境流动的影响。因此，这项研究将大大有助于全球化和经济学的社会科学理论，并为改善公共政策提供信息。资助这项研究也支持社会科学家的教育。

University of Chicago doctoral student, Malavika Reddy, with the guidance of Dr. John D. Kelly, will investigate situations where people who otherwise have little to no legal standing in a country, are nevertheless able to make claims on labor laws in that country's courts. The research will examine the central contradiction of such cases under study, which is that they adjudicate claimants' rights under labor law without adjudicating the legality of claimants' presence. Reddy hypothesizes that the legal process forges a simultaneously illegal yet legitimate standing, for which she proposes the term, "licit belonging." The research will be conducted in Thailand where the researcher will focus on the legal claims made by Burmese migrant workers. Reddy will use a variety of ethnographic methods, including participant observation, interviews, and focus groups, as well as discourse analysis to observe whether, and how, a licit identity for alien workers is formed within the Thai legal system. Detailed field notes and transcripts will be analyzed by focusing on particular moments of discourse when actors debate what comprises authoritative legal practice. This will make it possible to connect discussions that are seemingly internal to the workings of the law with the broader phenomena of an emergent form of licit belonging within the Thai nation-state. By investigating how foreign workers are able to mobilize the law on their own behalf, the study will analyze how legal systems influence and are influenced by the cross-border movements of people and capital that have come to be the hallmarks of global capitalism. The research will thus contribute significantly to both social science theory of globalization and economics, and to knowledge that can inform an improved public policy. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.