Ethnography, Oral History, and Network Analysis of Trader Behaviors and Institutions in India, Kenya, and South Sudan

印度、肯尼亚和南苏丹交易者行为和制度的民族志、口述历史和网络分析

• 批准号: 1260638
• 负责人: Rahul Oka
• 金额: $ 7.88万
• 依托单位: University of Notre Dame
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-01 至 2018-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1260638&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Ethnography; Oral; History; Network; Analysis

Dr. Rahul Oka and Dr. Nitesh Chawla of the University of Notre Dame will investigate the causes, consequences, and complexities of trader behaviors and the effects of external forces (political stability, trade friendliness, and business opportunity) on trader network transformations in India, Kenya, and South Sudan. Using ethnography, oral history, and Social Network Analysis, they will develop anthropological research tools that are sensitive to temporal and spatial specificities but which are scalable, transferable, and predictive. The result will be a cross-culturally valid model of the effects of political connectivity and social networks on human behavior in economic exchange relationships that can be used to understand how different types of trader networks affect local and regional economies. The researchers will collect data on trader and political networks for a sample of 60 traders in India, Kenya, and South Sudan. Two methods will be used to collect and analyze the data: a) qualitative ethnography and oral history of individual traders and their relationships, and b) quantitative network analyses of these networks over 20 years. The combined analyses will enable a better understanding of how traders differentially placed politically maintain or develop their commercial activities and how these affect larger trader networks and economy. Findings from this research will improve theoretical understanding of the scope and impact of trader-politician alliances and their outcomes. It will also provide valuable tools for development efforts, specifically in assessing potential responses to external interventions in local and regional economies. This research will enable theory building within both anthropology and network science on the underlying causes and consequences of trade and its impact on societies. The project also will provide research experience for American undergraduate and graduate student through fieldwork, inter-disciplinary analyses, and professional presentations/publications, and establish a cross-disciplinary collaboratory between American and international scholars.

圣母大学的Rahul Oka博士和Nitesh Chawla博士将研究贸易行为的原因、后果和复杂性，以及外部力量（政治稳定、贸易友好和商业机会）对印度、肯尼亚和南苏丹贸易网络转型的影响。利用民族志、口述历史和社会网络分析，他们将开发对时间和空间特殊性敏感的人类学研究工具，但这些工具是可扩展的、可转移的和可预测的。其结果将是一个跨文化有效的模型，用于研究政治联系和社会网络对经济交换关系中人类行为的影响，该模型可用于理解不同类型的贸易网络如何影响地方和区域经济。研究人员将收集来自印度、肯尼亚和南苏丹的60名贸易商的贸易和政治网络数据。将使用两种方法来收集和分析数据：a)定性民族志和个体交易者及其关系的口述历史，b) 20年来这些网络的定量网络分析。综合分析将有助于更好地理解政治地位不同的交易者如何维持或发展他们的商业活动，以及这些活动如何影响更大的交易者网络和经济。本研究的结果将提高对贸易-政治联盟及其结果的范围和影响的理论认识。它还将为发展努力提供宝贵的工具，特别是在评估对地方和区域经济外来干预的可能反应方面。这项研究将使人类学和网络科学在贸易的潜在原因和后果及其对社会的影响方面建立理论。该项目还将通过实地考察、跨学科分析和专业报告/出版物，为美国本科生和研究生提供研究经验，并建立美国和国际学者之间的跨学科合作实验室。