Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Cooperation in Uncertainty: Migration, Ethnicity, and Community Governance in India's Urban Slums

面对共同的挑战，为什么一些脆弱社区建立了促进其集体利益和安全的机构，而另一些社区却失败了？这项研究将调查印度城市贫民窟社区治理和发展的基础。该项目有两个主要目标。首先，通过借鉴印度贫民窟种族间合作水平的变化，它试图阐明阻碍或促进社会异质群体的政治组织的条件。第二，它将研究贫民窟内政治组织的性质以及市和州一级的政治竞争程度如何相互作用，从而在贫民窟的水电分配方面产生差异。该项目基于比较研究设计，将12个月的定性实地工作与调查数据的统计分析相结合。在印度城市斋浦尔和阿赫梅达巴德的六个贫民窟定居点，共同调查员将追踪移民群体、社区领袖和当地政党之间关系的发展。最初的调查将在斋浦尔和阿赫梅达巴德的1,200个家庭中进行。这些数据将使共同研究者能够从统计上检验社区机构和政治竞争对贫民窟居民区公共服务供应变化的影响，这项研究将推动三个跨学科的学术机构。首先，它有助于研究社会认同和集体行动。越来越多的比较政治学文献认为，种族多样性会严重破坏集体行动和经济发展。印度贫民窟社区持续的种族间组织和发展的出现为这一更大的文献提出了一个重要的理论难题。本文将通过确定不同的人在经济不确定的条件下如何发展信任和共同的战略来改善他们的生活，来增加我们对身份政治和集体行动的认识。其次，它有助于社区机构的研究。通过对近代社区历史的分析比较，本文将考察社区制度的起源以及不同移民群体之间的制度变迁机制。第三，发展研究绝大多数侧重于农村贫困。本论文加入了政治经济学的一个新兴研究议程，探讨了发展中国家城市地区的社区发展和公共产品的提供。社区发展政策主要依赖于“参与性发展”的概念，即贫困社区必须参与持续的集体行动，并与非政府组织和地方政府机构建立协同关系，以改善他们的福利和安全。通过对印度贫民窟居民区集体行动和社区治理的微观基础进行严格分析，这项研究将对城市发展工作具有重要的政策意义。世界上有10亿多人生活在贫民窟和棚户区。因此，除了印度，这项研究还将扩展到墨西哥、孟加拉国、泰国、阿根廷和加纳等发展中民主国家的贫困城市社区。除了在美国出版物和举办会议外，研究成果还将在印度的研究机构发表，包括发展研究所（斋浦尔）、贾瓦哈拉尔·尼赫鲁大学（JNU）和德里经济增长研究所。所有定性访谈数据和定量调查数据都将以公开方式提供，以确保透明度和可获取性。数据将永久存档在JNU，供印度学者使用，并将提供给世界银行和密歇根州立大学的联合项目“社会资本文件图书馆”。

In the face of common challenges, why do some vulnerable communities develop institutions that advance their collective interests and security while others fail? This research will investigate the foundations of community governance and development in India's urban slums. The project has two principal objectives. First, by drawing on variation in levels of inter-ethnic cooperation across India's slums, it seeks to illuminate the conditions that impede or facilitate political organization in socially heterogeneous groups. Second, it will examine how the nature of political organization within slums and the extent of political competition at the municipal and state level interact to produce variation in the distribution of water and electricity across slums. This project rests on a comparative research design that combines 12 months of qualitative fieldwork with a statistical analysis of survey data. In six slum settlements in the Indian cities of Jaipur and Ahmedabad, the co-investigator will trace the development of relations among migrant groups, community leaders, and local political parties. An original survey will be conducted across 1,200 households in the cities of Jaipur and Ahmedabad. This data will allow the co-investigator to statistically test the impact of community institutions and political competition on variation in the supply of public services across slum settlements.The research will advance three interdisciplinary bodies of scholarship. First, it contributes to the study of social identity and collective action. A growing literature in comparative politics argues that ethnic diversity can significantly undermine collective action and economic development. The emergence of sustained, inter-ethnic organization and development in slum communities in India presents an important theoretical puzzle for this larger literature. This dissertation will add to our knowledge of identity politics and collective action by identifying how diverse people in economically uncertain conditions develop trust and common strategies to improve their lives. Second, it contributes to research on community institutions. Through an analytical comparison of recent community histories, this dissertation will examine the origins of community institutions and the mechanisms of institutional change among diverse migrant groups. Third, development research overwhelmingly focuses on rural poverty. This dissertation joins a budding research agenda in political economy that examines community development and public goods provision in the urban areas of the developing world.Community development policies largely rest on the notion of "participatory development"--the notion that poor communities must engage in sustained collective action and synergistic relations with NGOs and local government bodies to improve their welfare and security. Through a rigorous analysis of the microfoundations of collective action and community governance in India's slum settlements, this research will have significant policy relevance for urban development efforts. More than one billion people in the world live in slum and squatter settlements. Beyond India, then, this research will extend to poor urban communities in developing democracies as diverse as Mexico, Bangladesh, Thailand, Argentina, and Ghana. In addition to publications and conferences in the United States, research findings will be presented at research institutions in India, including the Institute of Development Studies (Jaipur), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi. All qualitative interview data and quantitative survey data will be made publically available for transparency and accessibility. Data will be permanently archived at JNU for scholars in India and will be offered to the Social Capital Document Library, a joint project by the World Bank and Michigan State University.