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

圣母大学的Rahul Oka博士和Nitesh Chawla博士将研究交易商行为的原因、后果和复杂性，以及外部力量(政治稳定、贸易友好性和商机)对印度、肯尼亚和南苏丹交易商网络转型的影响。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细节敏感但可扩展、可转移和可预测的人类学研究工具。其结果将是一个跨文化的有效模型，研究政治连通性和社会网络对经济交换关系中人类行为的影响，可以用来理解不同类型的交易者网络如何影响当地和区域经济。研究人员将为印度、肯尼亚和南苏丹的60名交易员样本收集交易员和政治网络的数据。将使用两种方法收集和分析数据：a)定性的民族志和个体商人及其关系的口述历史，b)对这些网络20年来的定量网络分析。综合分析将有助于更好地理解处于不同政治地位的交易员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商网络和经济。这项研究的发现将提高对贸易商-政治家联盟及其结果的范围和影响的理论理解。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的外部干预的潜在反应方面。这项研究将使人类学和网络科学能够就贸易及其对社会的影响的根本原因和后果建立理论。该项目还将通过实地调查、跨学科分析和专业演讲/出版物为美国本科生和研究生提供研究经验，并在美国和国际学者之间建立跨学科合作。

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.