Doctoral Dissertation Research: Missing Links: Investigating the Socially-Differentiated Effects of Land Cover Change in a Rural Zambian Frontier

在Lisa C. Cliggett博士的指导下，肯塔基大学博士候选人Allison D. Harnish将负责研究基于性别和年龄的劳动分工、社会经济地位和家庭组成的变化如何影响世界各地日益普遍的自然资源减少的经历。这项研究超越了关于环境变化原因的争论，揭示了环境变化对人类的可测量影响。这项研究将传统的民族志技术与参与式方法和地理信息科学相结合，将促进环境人类学领域的持续发展和政策相关性。Harnish将在奇坎塔开展这项研究，奇坎塔是赞比亚南部毗邻Kafue国家公园的农村农业前沿。本研究将现有的650户人口调查与遥感（航空和卫星）图像的时间序列（1970年、1986年、2000年）分析、深入和后续访谈、两次绘图练习和参与者观察相结合。该项目还将有助于对1950年代末因卡里巴大坝而流离失所的温贝汤加人口重新安置的社会和环境后果进行持续的纵向评估。这将包括建立土地覆盖变化和采掘劳动的可视化表示，绘制(a)相对于移民家园的环境资源分布和(b)不同参与者收集环境资源所需的时间和距离。这项研究很重要，因为土地覆盖的变化可能会产生重大而不平等的后果，不仅对奇坎塔的居民，而且对全世界依赖自然资源谋生的人们。这个项目将有助于理解性别、发展和环境之间错综复杂的相互关系，目前对妇女脆弱性的日益关注正在形成国际发展和保护优先事项。农村妇女由于从事家务劳动而与自然环境联系更紧密，因此更容易受到环境变化的影响，这种描述可能会导致研究人员和政策制定者在不经意间将男性和青年的经历边缘化，并淡化其他变量，如年龄和阶级，这些变量也会影响人们与自然环境的关系。该项目注重环境变化的社会差异影响，强调所有社会类别的异质性，将有助于改变对农村人民和第三世界妇女的陈规定型描述。该项目还支持社会科学家的教育和培训。

University of Kentucky Doctoral Candidate Allison D. Harnish, supervised by Dr. Lisa C. Cliggett, will undertake research on how variability in gender- and age-based divisions of labor, socioeconomic status, and household composition affect the experience of natural resource declines that are increasingly common throughout the world. The research moves beyond debates regarding the causes of environmental change to uncover measurable effects of environmental change on humans. Incorporating conventional ethnographic techniques with participatory methods and geographic information science, the research will foster continued growth and policy relevance in the area of environmental anthropology. Harnish will carry out the research in Chikanta, a rural farming frontier in southern Zambia abutting Kafue National Park. This study integrates an existing 650-household demographic survey with analyses of a time series (1970, 1986, 2000) of remotely sensed (aerial and satellite) imagery as well as in-depth and follow-up interviews, two mapping exercises, and participant observation. The project also will contribute to an ongoing longitudinal assessment of the social and environmental consequences of relocation for a population of Gwembe Tonga who were displaced by Kariba Dam in the late-1950s. This will including building a visual representation of land cover change and extractive labor that plots (a) the distribution of environmental resources relative to migrant homesteads and (b) the time and distance required by different actors for the collection of environmental resources. This research is important because changes in land cover are likely to bear substantial and substantially unequal consequences, not just for Chikanta residents, but for people worldwide who depend on natural resources for their livelihood. This project will contribute to understanding the intricate interconnections between gender, development, and environment at a time when proliferating concern for women's vulnerability is shaping international development and conservation priorities. Depictions of rural women as more linked to the natural environment by virtue their domestic labor and, so, more vulnerable to environmental change may lead researchers and policymakers inadvertently to marginalize the experiences of men and youth, and to downplay other variables, such as age and class, that also affect people's relationships with the natural environment. By focusing on the socially-differentiated effects of environmental change and emphasizing the heterogeneity of all social categories, this project will help to counter stereotypical portrayals of rural peoples and Third-World women. The project also supports the education and training of a social scientist.