Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Role of Sovereignty and Indigeneity Assertions in Claims to Oil Extraction Rights

纽约市立大学研究生中心博士候选人詹姆斯。布莱尔在马克·埃德尔曼博士的监督下，将研究那些认同殖民定居的个人如何主张主权和独立，以获得对可开采资源的权利。研究的重点是福克兰群岛（西班牙语为马尔维纳斯群岛）的英国定居者，他们通过对油气资源的新的治理形式将自己建设成当地人。1982年的军事冲突巩固了南大西洋群岛的英国地位，30年后，在群岛附近发现了石油，阿根廷重申了其主权要求。作为回应，岛上的定居者举行了一次关于自决的全民公决，其中99.8%的人投票支持留在英国。因此，该项目通过一个选择性地强化西方规范和价值观的印第安人叙事，调查了定居者如何试图将自己重塑为一群以社区为基础的自然资源管理者。为了理解定居者如何将自己重塑为拥有资源权利的土著人，布莱尔将分析：（1）围绕基础设施的争论如何形成新的地方权力关系;（2）争端如何引导专家评估环境影响;（3）岛民如何将自决包装为石油伙伴稳定的标志。研究包括观察和采访岛上的规划者、科学家、市民、移民和牧羊人，以及阿根廷的叛逃岛民和抗议团体。通过对殖民地报告的分析，布莱尔将思考当前的时刻是如何成为资源治理的历史关系的结果。这个项目是独特的定位，适用于地缘政治人类学的方法。在全球能源危机期间，围绕矿产丰富的岛链的主权争端加剧。但其中许多地区无人居住。布莱尔将通过对一个有争议的群岛进行研究，为新兴的地缘政治星座提供人类学视角。致力于公共人类学的目标，布莱尔与《经济学人》保持着持续的联系，这将使他能够广泛传播他的研究结果。

CUNY Graduate Center doctoral candidate James J. A. Blair, supervised by Dr. Marc Edelman, will examine how individuals identified with colonial settlement assert claims of sovereignty and indigeneity to gain rights to extractable resources. The research is focused on the British settlers of the Falkland Islands (in Spanish, Malvinas), as they construct themselves as natives through new forms of governance over hydrocarbon resources. Thirty years after the 1982 military conflict that cemented the South Atlantic archipelago's British status, oil has been discovered near the islands, and Argentina has renewed its sovereignty claim. In response, the island's settlers held a referendum on self-determination in which 99.8% voted to remain British. The project thus investigates how the settlers are trying to reinvent themselves as a group of community-based natural resource managers, through a narrative of indigeneity that selectively reinforces Western norms and values.To understand how the settlers are reinventing themselves as natives with resource rights, Blair will analyze: (1) how debates around infrastructure are forming new local power relations; (2) how the dispute orients experts assessing environmental impact; and (3) how the islanders are packaging self-determination as a sign of stability for oil partners. Research incorporates observations and interviews with planners, scientists, townspeople, migrants and shepherds in the islands, as well as defected islanders and protest groups in Argentina. Through analysis of colonial reports, Blair will consider how the present moment is an outcome of historical relations of resource governance. This project is uniquely positioned to apply an anthropological approach to geopolitics. Sovereignty disputes over mineral-rich island chains have intensified during the global energy crisis. But many of these territories are uninhabited. Blair will contribute an anthropological perspective to emerging geopolitical constellations, by conducting research on a disputed archipelago that is populated. Committed to the aims of public anthropology, Blair has an on-going affiliation with The Economist, which will allow him to disseminate his findings widely.