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.

耶鲁大学博士生Amy Zhang在Michael R.鸽子，将通过废物管理的透镜进行研究的社会和物理当代城市景观的转变。废物管理已成为官方建设现代城市的重点，成为农村移民的主要生计手段，也是城市环保活动家的经常集会点。本研究以人类学中关于社会生活和城市基础设施的物质层面的新兴文献为基础，旨在探讨不同废弃物丢弃和回收方式的意义和价值。通过对中国广州和北京的废物专家、活动家和非正式收集者进行为期18个月的人种志研究，研究者将确定废物管理的社会实践、技术和基础设施，以及随之而来的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;了解废物，风险和污染的各种方式;以及国家建设现代城市的努力与居民生活经验之间的关系。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，参与者观察（废物管理计划），人种学生命周期分析（废物对象），摄影文档和摄影语音。 中国关于废物管理的公共政策辩论突出了技术解决方案的必要性。该项目扩大了关于城市废物管理的辩论，使之包括承认公众接受科学技术和非正规回收系统。这些方面对于中国和南半球寻求设计宜居城市的政策制定者以及城市和区域规划者都很重要。最后，该项目增加了一个民族志的角度，侧重于人类的愿望和社会实践的不可预见的结果的意义，旨在加强对城市环境变化的人的层面的理解不断增长的跨学科领域。支持这项研究也支持研究生的教育。