Doctoral Dissertation Research: Trade, Trust, and Social Relations in Transnational Trade

博士论文研究：跨国贸易中的贸易、信任和社会关系

• 批准号: 1524453
• 负责人: Sharika Thiranagama
• 金额: $ 2.18万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-15 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1524453&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Trade; Trust

Contemporary global commodity trade is often understood to be controlled by large, multinational corporations. However, when we look more closely at actual commodity movements, a wide range of local actors comes into view. These include traders and trading communities who move goods and capital across surprisingly vast distances. Yet researchers who study global capitalism have tended to overlook the contemporary significance of such actors, assuming that because they may depend on kinship, community, and regional networks for commerce, their ability to affect global markets is limited. Recently, however, new evidence suggests that this assumption may be based on a false division between economic and social life and thus blind social scientists to the true importance of traditional traders and trading communities. To investigate this possibility, the research supported by this award will investigate several previously neglected questions. What relationships are there between local practicies and international commodity trade? Is contemporary commerce connected to historical trading networks? Are connections of kinship, friendship, and obligation important in modulating flows of goods across changing international regimes of regulation and taxation? And, given that traders are often key social as well as economic intermediaries, how might their activities affect relationships during and after periods of war and political stress?To pursue these question, Stanford University anthropology doctoral student, Nethra Samarawickreama, supervised by Dr. Sharika Thiranagama, will undertake research on an Indian Ocean trading community. Because of the complexity of the questiions, the research site needs to be relatively bounded in order to be able to observe the economic micro-processes at work. Therefore, she has chosen to focus on the gold and gem trade in Sri Lanka, which has historically been dominated by family businesses that function locally and transnationally, do so across lines of ethnic difference, and have sustained economic relationships before, during, and after Sri Lanka's recent civil war. She will complement the Sri Lanka-based portion of her investigation with research in Singapore, where South Indian businessmen recirculate Sri Lankan goods throughout the Indian Ocean. To gather data, the researcher will use multiple social science research methods, including: participant observation, semi-structured interviews, the elicitation of family histories, and archival research. First, she will examine traders' discourses of trust to understand how trading families constitute themselves, access credit, build reputations, engage in philanthropy, and forge far-reaching relations of dependency. Secondly, she will seek to conceptualize traders' local relations through frames wider than the nation and situate them in transnational commercial networks. Thirdly, she will seek to understand how ethnic attachments and differences may coexist with enduring inter-ethnic commercial exchanges despite conflict and its aftermaths. Findings from this research will contribute significantly to understanding the relationship between local socioeconomic systems and global trade, as well as opening up new arenas for developing policies to faciliate peaceful co-existence in post-conflict situations.

当代全球商品贸易往往被理解为由大型跨国公司控制。然而，当我们更仔细地观察实际的商品流动时，就会看到各种各样的当地行为者。其中包括商人和贸易社区，他们将货物和资本跨越惊人的距离。然而，研究全球资本主义的研究人员往往忽视了这些行为者的当代意义，认为由于他们可能依赖亲属关系、社区和地区网络进行商业活动，他们影响全球市场的能力是有限的。然而，最近有新的证据表明，这种假设可能是建立在对经济生活和社会生活的错误划分基础上的，从而使社会科学家看不到传统商人和贸易社区的真正重要性。为了研究这种可能性，该奖项支持的研究将调查几个以前被忽视的问题。地方政府与国际商品贸易之间有什么关系？当代商业与历史贸易网络有联系吗？亲属关系、友谊和义务的联系在调节国际监管和税收制度变化中的货物流动方面是否重要？而且，鉴于贸易商往往是关键的社会和经济中介，他们的活动如何影响战争和政治压力期间和之后的关系？为了探讨这些问题，斯坦福大学人类学博士生Nethra Samarawickreama将在Sharika Thiranagama博士的指导下对印度洋贸易社区进行研究。 由于问题的复杂性，研究地点需要相对有界，以便能够观察工作中的经济微观过程。因此，她选择专注于斯里兰卡的黄金和宝石贸易，斯里兰卡的黄金和宝石贸易历史上一直由在当地和跨国运作的家族企业主导，跨越种族差异，并在斯里兰卡最近的内战之前，期间和之后维持经济关系。她将在新加坡进行研究，以补充她调查的斯里兰卡部分，在那里，南印度商人将斯里兰卡的货物再循环到整个印度洋。为了收集数据，研究人员将使用多种社会科学研究方法，包括：参与者观察，半结构化访谈，家庭历史的启发和档案研究。首先，她将研究交易者的信任话语，以了解交易家庭如何构成自己，获得信贷，建立声誉，从事慈善事业，并建立深远的依赖关系。其次，她将通过比国家更广泛的框架来概念化贸易商的地方关系，并将其纳入跨国商业网络。第三，她将设法了解尽管存在冲突及其后果，但族裔依恋和差异如何与持久的族裔间商业交流共存。这项研究的结果将大大有助于了解当地社会经济制度与全球贸易之间的关系，并为制定政策开辟新的领域，以促进冲突后局势中的和平共处。