Doctoral Dissertation Research: Everyday Relationships, Political Frontiers, and Industrial Market Zones

位于国际边界的工业和商业集中区经常被开发商宣传为经济发展的引擎和改善政治关系的催化剂。社会科学家对此持更加怀疑的态度，他们指出，当相关国家的实力不平等时，经济特区可能会通过加剧经济和政治不平等来维持不稳定。然而，很少有关于实现积极或消极结果的实地进程的研究。芝加哥大学博士生杰里米·西格曼在威廉·马扎雷拉博士的指导下，将在以色列占领的约旦河西岸的一个商业联络区进行研究，以解决这一知识差距。这是一个理想的地点，因为发展以色列人和巴勒斯坦人之间的经济联系可能导致他们之间和整个地区和平共处的想法一直是该地区外国投资的支柱。这将是对以色列占领的约旦河西岸的以巴商业接触的第一次详细研究。研究人员将对日常实践中发生的以巴接触进行为期12个月的民族志研究。他将把重点放在以色列控制的商业和工业区，许多巴勒斯坦人在那里工作，有时还在那里购物。研究方法将包括对市场做法的参与性观察，辅之以媒体和活动材料的内容分析；对以色列和巴勒斯坦工人、购物者、安全机构和活动人士的广泛访谈；以及对当地经济分析师的访谈。这些数据将使他能够评估，通过日常工作和购物活动，以色列人和巴勒斯坦人是如何构建彼此关系的，以及这种框架也可能受到工作场所纠纷、性别紧张、政治或宗教辩论和安全活动等普通事件的干扰或破坏。只有详细的参与者观察和采访，用阿拉伯语和希伯来语进行，才能揭示这些复杂的空间，两个独立的社会世界汇聚在一起。基于之前在该地区的经验和他流利的语言，斯蒂格曼的研究将为以色列和巴勒斯坦的商业接触之谜提供新的线索。

Concentrated industrial and commercial zones on international borders are frequently promoted by their developers as both engines of economic development and catalysts for improved political relationships. Social scientists have been more skeptical, pointing out that when the countries involved have unequal power, special economic zones may perpetuate instability through increased economic and political inequality. However, there is little research on the on-the-ground processes through which either positive or negative outcomes are realized. University of Chicago doctoral student Jeremy Siegman, who is supervised by Dr. William Mazzarella, will undertake research in a commercial contact zone in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to address this knowledge gap. This is an ideal site because the idea that developing economic ties between Israelis and Palestinians might lead to peaceful coexistence between them and throughout the region has been a mainstay of foreign investment in the region. This will be the first detailed study of Israeli-Palestinian commercial contact in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.The researcher will undertake a 12-month ethnographic study of Israeli-Palestinian contact as it takes place in daily practice. He will focus on Israeli-controlled commercial and industrial zones where many Palestinians work and sometimes shop. Research methods will include participant observation of market practices, supplemented with content analyses of media and activist materials; extensive interviews with Israelis and Palestinian workers, shoppers, security agencies and activists; and interviews with local economic analysts. These data will allow him to assess how, through everyday work and shopping practices, Israelis and Palestinians frame their relations to each other and how such framings may also be disrupted or undermined by such ordinary events as workplace disputes, gendered tensions, political or religious debates, and security activities. Only detailed participant-observation and interviews, conducted in both Arabic and Hebrew, can shed light on these complex spaces where two separated social worlds come together. Building on previous experience in the area and his linguistic fluency, Stiegman's research will shed new light on the puzzle of Israeli-Palestinian commercial contact.