Doctoral Dissertation Research: Global Economy, Technical Expertise and Mega-Port Development in Northern Morocco

博士论文研究：全球经济、技术专长和摩洛哥北部的巨型港口发展这项博士研究探索全球物流的技术专长、基础设施和日常做法，重点是规划、实施和控制全球货物和资源从原产地到消费地的流动，这是摩洛哥北部一个新的巨型港口的新兴物流枢纽。通过对物流专业人士的半结构化访谈，以及对丹吉尔地区学术和现场培训项目的参与者观察，本研究将检验摩洛哥人对这一不断扩大的行业进行培训和工作的看法和经验。为期三个月的对比研究将在洛杉矶和美国最大的物流枢纽加州长滩进行。这项研究的目的是阐明(1)使货物在全球经济中有效流动的复杂的物流社会和技术过程，以及(2)在特定地方如何构成全球形式的技术专门知识。知识价值这项研究将把文化人类学和科学技术研究(STS)的文献联系起来，以促进社会科学对全球化、技术专长以及培训全球专家的当地轨迹和影响的理解。一些人类学家认为，应该通过追踪全球范围内的事物、人员和思想流动来研究当代世界。这项研究考察了全球流动这一比喻的物质和技术层面，因为大多数全球贸易商品都是由物流专家组织起来的，实际上是跨越世界大洋流动的。这项研究还建立在STS的承诺之上，即确定在后殖民世界发展科学和技术专业知识的社会问题和政治利害关系。广泛影响鉴于航运服务和基础设施日益外包，巨型港口发展对社会和环境的影响，以及不间断的全球货物流动在当前美国国家安全政策中的中心地位，对全球物流的民族志研究是及时的。

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Global Economy, Technical Expertise and Mega-PortDevelopment in Northern MoroccoThis doctoral research explores the technical expertise, infrastructure and everyday practices of global logistics,focusing on the planning, implementing, and controlling of the global movement of goods and resources from places of origin to places of consumption at the emerging logistics hub of a new mega-port in Northern Morocco. Through semi-structured interviews with logistics professionals and participant observation in academic and on-site training programs in the Tangier region, this research will examine the perceptions and experiences of Moroccans training and working for this expanding industry. Three months of comparative research will be conducted in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, the largest logistics hub in the United States. This study aims to elucidate (1) the complex social and technical processes of logistics enabling the efficient flow of goods in the global economy and (2) how a global form of technical expertise is constituted in particular places. Intellectual meritThis study will connect literatures in Cultural Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies (STS) in order to advance the social scientific understanding of globalization, technical expertise, and the local trajectories and impacts of training global experts. There are anthropologists who argue that the contemporary world should be studied by tracing the global flows of things, people and ideas. This study examines the material and technical dimension to the metaphor of global flow since most globally traded goods are organized by logistics experts to literally flow across the world's oceans. This study also builds on the commitment in STS to identify the social issues and political stakes in developing scientific and technological expertise in the post-colonial world.Broader impactsAn ethnographic study of global logistics is timely given the increasing outsourcing of shipping services and infrastructure, the social and environmental impacts of mega-port development, and the centrality of uninterrupted global flows of goods in current US national security policy.