Doctoral Dissertation Research: Post-Conflict Social Impacts of Technological Failure

新学院大学博士生Vasiliki Touhouliotis将在Ann Stoler博士的指导下进行关于武器技术冲突后影响的研究。某些技术可能会挑战“战时”和“和平时期”的传统对立。这项研究很重要，因为通过追踪围绕武器技术的人、物、实践和话语，以及它们如何影响冲突后的生活，她的发现将提高我们对停止冲突在实践中意味着什么的理解，并将为帮助社会调整的政策提供信息。这名研究人员将在南黎巴嫩进行为期12个月的民族志实地调查，在那里，2006年战争期间投下的数十万枚未爆炸的集束炸弹仍然是物质危险的来源。研究人员将采用适当的社会科学方法的组合。她将从排雷人员、受影响社区的居民、受害者康复中心的人以及地雷风险教育项目的参与者那里收集观察数据。她将与广泛的利益相关者进行半结构化访谈，包括受影响的个人、农民和其他居民、地方官员和援助人员。她还将对媒体材料进行内容分析。这些数据将用于解决以下首要问题：未爆炸的集束炸弹是否延长了战争时间？这种延长采取什么形式？战争的暂时持续如何影响冲突和冲突后公民社会的意义和实践？通过加深对未爆炸炸弹中日常生活的理解，本研究将对不依赖于战争与和平对立的战争与暴力的社会科学理论做出原创性贡献。调查结果将有助于人道主义组织和决策者评估和了解暴力冲突的影响，并规划和实施和平战略。支持这项研究也有助于社会科学家的教育。

New School University doctoral student Vasiliki Touhouliotis, supervised by Dr. Ann Stoler, will undertake research on the post-conflict effects of weapon technologies. Particular technologies may challenge the classic opposition of "wartime" and "peacetime." This research is important because, by tracking the people, objects, practices, and discourses around the weapons technologies and how they affect post-conflict life, her findings will improve our understanding of what the cessation of conflict means in practice and will inform policies to help societies adjust.The researcher will carry out twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork throughout South Lebanon where hundreds of thousands of unexploded cluster bombs dropped during the 2006 War remain a source of material danger. The researcher will employ a combination of appropriate social science methods. She will collect observational data from de-miners, residents in affected communities, people at victim rehabilitation centers, and participants in mine-risk education programs. She will conduct semi-structured interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, including affected individuals, farmers and other residents, local officials, and aid workers. She also will do content analysis of media materials. These data will be used to address the following overarching questions: Do the unexploded cluster bombs prolong the time of war? What forms does this prolongation take? How does the temporal persistence of war affect the meaning and practices of conflict and post-conflict civil society?By advancing understanding of daily life amongst unexploded bombs, this research will make an original contribution to social scientific theory of war and violence that does not rely on the opposition between war and peace. Findings will help humanitarian organizations and policy makers assess and understand the effects of violent conflict, and plan for and implement strategies for peace. Supporting this research also contributes to the education of a social scientist.