Doctoral Dissertation Research: Recycling and waste management in Chinese cities

博士论文研究：中国城市的回收和废物管理

• 批准号: 1225886
• 负责人: Michael Dove
• 金额: $ 0.24万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2014-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1225886&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Recycling; waste

Yale University doctoral candidate Amy Zhang, under the guidance of Dr. Michael R. Dove, will undertake research on the transformation of social and physical contemporary urban landscapes through the lens of waste management. Waste management has become a focus of official efforts to construct modern cities, a prominent means of livelihood for rural migrants, and a frequent rallying point for urban environmental activists. Building on the emerging literature in anthropology on the material dimensions of social life and urban infrastructure, this study aims to examine the meanings and values that inform different ways of discarding and reclaiming objectsThrough eighteen months of ethnographic research with waste experts, activists and informal collectors in Guangzhou and Beijing, China, the researcher will identify the social practices, technologies and infrastructures of waste management, and the accompanying aspirations and values that are reconfiguring China's urban environment. She also seeks to understand the public reception of science and technology in China; various ways of knowing waste, risk, and pollution; and the relationship between state efforts to build modern cities and the lived experiences of inhabitants. The researcher will use a variety of social science research methods including semi-structured interviews, oral histories, participant observation (of waste management schemes), ethnographic life-cycle analysis (of waste objects), photographic documentation, and photovoice. Public policy debates on waste management in China foreground the need for technological solutions. This project broadens the debate over municipal waste management to include recognition of the public reception of science and technology and informal systems of recycling. These dimensions are important to both policy makers and urban and regional planners who seek to design livable cities in China and the global south. Finally, this project adds an ethnographic perspective, focused on the significance of human aspirations and the unforeseen outcomes of social practice, to a growing interdisciplinary field aimed at enhancing understandings of the human dimensions of urban environmental change. Supporting this research also supports the education of a graduate student.

耶鲁大学博士研究生Amy Zhang将在Michael R. Dove博士的指导下，从废物管理的角度研究当代城市景观的社会和物理转变。废物管理已成为官方建设现代城市的一个重点，是农村流动人口的重要谋生手段，也是城市环保人士的一个频繁集会点。在人类学关于社会生活和城市基础设施的物质维度的新兴文献的基础上，本研究旨在研究影响丢弃和回收物品的不同方式的意义和价值。通过与中国广州和北京的废物专家、活动家和非正式收集者进行18个月的民族志研究，研究人员将确定废物管理的社会实践、技术和基础设施。以及伴随而来的正在重塑中国城市环境的愿望和价值观。她还试图了解中国公众对科学技术的接受程度；了解废物、风险和污染的各种方法；以及国家建设现代城市的努力与居民生活经历之间的关系。研究人员将使用各种社会科学研究方法，包括半结构化访谈、口述历史、参与观察（废物管理方案）、民族志生命周期分析（废物对象）、摄影文献和照片语音。中国关于废物管理的公共政策辩论突出了对技术解决方案的需求。这个项目扩大了关于城市废物管理的辩论，包括承认公众接受科学和技术以及非正式的回收系统。这些方面对政策制定者、城市和区域规划者来说都很重要，他们希望在中国和全球南方设计宜居城市。最后，该项目增加了一个民族志的视角，关注人类愿望的重要性和社会实践的不可预见的结果，旨在加强对城市环境变化的人类层面的理解。支持这项研究也支持了研究生的教育。