COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: A multidimensional investigation of the dynamics of market transition and social change

财富是幸福的关键决定因素。因此，了解人们如何获得财富，对于消除贫穷和增进福祉的努力至关重要。对美国境内边缘化人口的研究表明，限制获得物质财富和正规教育会通过亲属和友谊网络共享有限的资源，从而导致风险共担。但这些网络也可能会限制个人获取物质财富，从而抑制经济流动性。对于希望了解贫困和相关社会问题的原因和后果的政策制定者和社会科学家来说，了解社交网络如何缓冲风险或阻碍获取与福祉最密切相关的财富形式是必要的。因此，该奖项支持的研究将调查经济发展与一系列财富类型之间的关系，包括物质财富、健康、教育和社会网络。这项研究将由Siobhan Mattison博士(新墨西哥大学)、Tami Blumenfield Kedar博士(福尔曼大学)和Mary Shenk博士(密苏里大学)进行。为了了解各种形式的财富如何相互作用以及与健康如何影响幸福感，该团队在两个社会设计了一项比较研究，在这两个社会中，物质财富、教育和医疗保健的获取正在迅速改变和改变当地的社交网络。研究人群包括两个小规模的农业人口，中国西南部的摩梭人和孟加拉国农村地区马特村的村民。在这两个地方，以前以自给自足为基础的人口正在迅速融入区域、国家和国际劳动力和商品市场。这提供了一个自然的实验，让他们能够探索最近和正在进行的劳动力和教育机会、家庭系统和人口过程的变化如何影响财富和福祉。研究人员将进行人口和社会网络调查，以收集经济和社会信息，采取人体测量措施评估健康，并开展焦点小组、深度访谈和短视频采访，以检查当地对财富和福祉的解读。这项研究采用的比较方法将使人们能够了解不同的社会规范和机构如何采取行动帮助或限制获得不断变化的财富形式。调查结果还将显示，在不同的社会经济背景下，这些规范对福祉是保护的还是有害的。这项研究的结果将详细了解个人层面和更大层面的社会制约如何影响正在经历经济发展的经济体的财富和福祉的分配，从而为理解影响美国和世界各地努力发展的人的机会和挑战提供一个有用的模型。该项目由文化人类学项目、激发竞争性研究实验项目(EPSCoR)和国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

Wealth is a critical determinant of well-being. Understanding how people gain access to wealth is therefore critically important in efforts to eradicate poverty and promote well-being. Research among marginalized populations within the United States suggests that restricted access to material wealth and formal education results in risk pooling by sharing limited resources through kin and friendship networks. But those same networks may also restrict individual access to material wealth and thereby inhibit economic mobility. Understanding how social networks either buffer against risk or impede access to the forms of wealth most closely associated with well-being is necessary for policy makers and social scientists who wish to understand the causes and consequences of poverty and associated social problems. Therefore, the research supported by this award will investigate the relationship between economic development and a range of wealth types, including material wealth, health, education, and social networks. The research will be undertaken by Dr. Siobhan Mattison (University of New Mexico), Dr. Tami Blumenfield Kedar (Furman University), and Dr. Mary Shenk (University of Missouri). To understand how various forms of wealth interact with each other and with health to affect well-being, the team has designed a comparative study in two societies where access to material wealth, education, and healthcare is rapidly changing and altering local social networks. The study populations comprise two small-scale agricultural populations, the Mosuo of Southwest China and the villagers of Matlab, a rural district in Bangladesh. In both places, formerly subsistence-based populations are rapidly becoming integrated with regional, national, and international markets in labor and goods. This provides a natural experiment that allows them explore how recent and ongoing shifts in labor and educational opportunities, family systems, and demographic processes affect wealth and well-being. The researchers will conduct demographic and social network surveys to collect economic and social information, take anthropometric measures to assess health, and conduct focus groups, in-depth interviews, and short video interviews to examine local interpretations of wealth and well-being. The comparative approach employed by the study will allow an understanding of how different social norms and institutions act to either help or limit access to changing forms of wealth. Findings will also show whether these norms are protective or harmful with respect to well-being in different socio-economic contexts. The results of this study will provide a detailed understanding of how individual-level and larger-level social constraints affect the distribution of wealth and well-being in economies undergoing economic development, thus providing a useful model for understanding the opportunities and challenges affecting people struggling to thrive in the United States and around the world. The project is jointly funded by the Cultural Anthropology Program, the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Office of International Science and Engineering.