Doctoral Dissertation Research: Roads and Accidents in Kenya

博士论文研究：肯尼亚的道路和事故

• 批准号: 1225907
• 负责人: Rosalind Morris
• 金额: $ 0.96万
• 依托单位: Columbia 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: 2012-08-01 至 2015-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1225907&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Roads; Accidents

Columbia University doctoral student Amiel Melnick, under the guidance of Dr. Rosalind Morris, will undertake research on traffic accidents and roads in Kenya. Through an examination of the role of traffic accidents in Kenyan policy and public discourse, the regulatory techniques of road safety interventions, and the lived experience of those who travel on roads known as "death stretches," this research will consider the relationship of infrastructure, social practice, and everyday hazards. Focusing on the expert calculation and bureaucratic management of traffic accidents, as well as moral and practical responses on the part of accident victims and their families, religious leaders, and the Kenyan public more generally, this study aims to provide an empirically grounded account of the everyday management of road traffic accidents that will contribute to discussions of infrastructure, contingency, and risk management in African contexts.The research will involve social science methods such as interviews, participant observation, archival analysis, and GIS mapping in both the capital Nairobi and an accident "black spot" (a stretch of road that sees frequent accidents). The study will both describe the burden of coping with accidental death and injury in everyday life and offer critical purchase on international and local road safety interventions. It will expand the social scientific study of infrastructure with an ethnographic case study of accident-prone "black spots" in Kenya. The project will also rework classic anthropological questions on contingency and hazard, which have traditionally been focused on occult causation, by studying a range of epistemological frameworks for understanding "accidents." Traffic accidents, which are a leading cause of death and injury in Africa, remain understudied by social scientists. The researchers will share their findings with a broad range of audiences in an attempt to inform road construction and road safety efforts in Kenya and beyond. The project will also contribute to the training of a graduate student.

哥伦比亚大学博士生阿米尔·梅尔尼克（Amiel Melnick）将在罗莎琳德·莫里斯（Rosalind Morris）博士的指导下开展肯尼亚交通事故和道路研究。通过研究交通事故在肯尼亚政策和公共话语中的作用，道路安全干预措施的监管技术，以及那些在被称为"死亡延伸"的道路上旅行的人的生活经历，这项研究将考虑基础设施，社会实践和日常危害的关系。侧重于交通事故的专家计算和官僚管理，以及事故受害者及其家属，宗教领袖和肯尼亚公众的道德和实际反应，本研究旨在提供道路交通事故日常管理的经验基础帐户，这将有助于讨论基础设施，应急，该研究将涉及社会科学方法，如访谈，参与者观察，档案分析，以及在首都内罗毕和事故"黑点"（一段经常发生事故的道路）的地理信息系统绘图。这项研究将描述日常生活中应对意外伤亡的负担，并提供国际和地方道路安全干预措施的重要信息。它将扩大对基础设施的社会科学研究，对肯尼亚易发生事故的"黑点"进行人种学案例研究。 该项目还将通过研究一系列理解"事故"的认识论框架，重新研究关于偶然性和危险的经典人类学问题，这些问题传统上集中在神秘的因果关系上。"交通事故是非洲死亡和受伤的主要原因，社会科学家对它的研究仍然不足。 研究人员将与广泛的受众分享他们的研究结果，试图为肯尼亚及其他地区的道路建设和道路安全工作提供信息。 该项目还将有助于培养一名研究生。