Doctoral Dissertation Research: Racial Boundaries and the Dynamics of Transformation

José ItzigsohnMarcelo A.在种族化的社会中，种族边界的斗争是一个永恒的特征--社会、政治和经济资源沿着种族界线有差异地分配。然而，大多数关于种族化社会转型的研究都采取了宏观层面的政治和制度视角，忽视了实地具体行动者如何经历、感知和参与转型。该项目有望对种族和种族边界的研究做出以下贡献：（1）考察种族话语如何影响国家制度逻辑的转变，以及官僚的种族/文化身份是如何塑造的，以及日常组织互动是如何塑造的;（2）通过研究种族界限在日常生活中是如何维持、挑战和改变的，揭示种族是如何运作的;以及（3）更好地说明日常话语与种族边界转变实践之间的联系。通过12个月的人种学研究和访谈，该项目研究国家非殖民化的微观动力，以及玻利维亚新国家结构的衔接。研究的重点是更大项目的一个方面，即公共行政的非殖民化，这在一定程度上导致公务员制度中的职位向土著男子和妇女开放。以下的一个国家机构的非殖民化的过程中，使用的象征性和社会边界的社会学概念作为分析工具，本研究旨在了解如何，在宏观政治变化的背景下，官僚在地面上解释，谈判，并重新阐明种族边界和制度变革，以及什么effect.Broader ImpactsThe研究将有相关的政策实践者的实际影响。它将揭示官方种族政策与其实际执行情况之间通常被模糊的领域。吸取的经验教训可能会为公共部门以外和其他情况下的体制改革提供信息。鉴于种族不平等的韧性，这些经验教训是重要的，尽管有政策寻求解决这些问题。此外，该项目将建立和促进玻利维亚和美国研究人员之间的持久研究合作网络。

José ItzigsohnMarcelo A. BohrtBrown UniversityStruggles over racial boundaries are a perennial feature of racialized societies -- where social, political, and economic resources are differentially distributed along racial lines. Yet, most studies of the transformation of racialized societies adopt a macro-level political and institutional perspective, overlooking how transformation is experienced, perceived, and participated in by concrete actors, on the ground. The project promises to make the following contributions to the study of race and racial boundaries: (1) to examine how racial discourses inform the transformation of state institutional logics, and the ways in which the racial/cultural identities of bureaucrats shape and are shaped by everyday organizational interactions; (2) to reveal how race works by examining how racial boundaries are maintained, challenged, and changed in everyday life; and (3) to better specify the link between everyday discourses and practices in the transformation of racial boundaries. Through 12 months of ethnographic research and interviews this project studies the micro-dynamics of state decolonization, and the articulation of a new state structure in Bolivia. The research focuses on one facet of the larger project, the decolonization of public administration, which has, in part, resulted in the opening up of positions within the civil service to indigenous men and women. Following the process of decolonization of one state agency and using the sociological concepts of symbolic and social boundaries as analytical tools, this research seeks to understand how, in the context of macro-political change, bureaucrats on the ground interpret, negotiate, and rearticulate racial boundaries and institutional change, and to what effect.Broader ImpactsThe study will have practical implications of relevance to policy practitioners. It will shed light on the generally obscured area between official racial policies and their implementation on the ground. The lessons learned could possibly inform institutional change beyond the public sector and in other contexts. These lessons are important in light of the resilience of racial inequalities despite policies that seek to address them. In addition, this project will build and promote lasting research collaboration networks between researchers in Bolivia and the United States.