Doctoral Dissertation Research: Geopolitical Shifts in the Geographies of Extractive Economies

博士论文研究：采掘经济地理的地缘政治变化

• 批准号: 1536313
• 负责人: John O'Loughlin
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 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: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1536313&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Geopolitical; Shifts

This doctoral dissertation research project will analyze how recent geopolitical shifts are affecting national-level resource governance debates and subnational politics in developing nations. The doctoral student will investigate the interplay between national and subnational resource politics and two broader trends in extractive economies. The first of those trends are the growing involvement from resource extraction entities based in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the so-called BRICS states that are characterized as having large, fast-growing economies. The second of the trends is the increasing involvement by national governments in resource extraction. Natural resource ownership, governance, and revenue distribution often are contentious topics, and extraction-related tensions can aggravate or catalyze political unrest in the countries of extraction, particularly in those with poor governance structures. Increasing involvement in extraction by African states and by BRICS actors have raised anew the geopolitical and political economic implications of tensions among foreign investment actors, governments, and citizens with respect to natural resource extraction. These dynamics have significant implications for extraction-related social relations at a variety of scales, but there has been little scholarly attention to how these developments are being understood by residents of the countries and localities where extraction is occurring. This project's findings will advance interdisciplinary social science knowledge regarding resource politics and the increasing global prominence of BRICS states by extending and testing studies of the individual-level factors that shape citizens' perceptions of resource governance and geopolitics. By providing data regarding the factors that shape perceptions of resource extraction and governance, the project will enhance capabilities to understand, predict, and address political tensions, including violence, in resource-rich states and improve resource governance, especially in Africa. This enhanced knowledge is of critical value to the United States as it seeks to redefine its relationships with developing nations and the rapidly growing states that are playing a growing role in global economic activity. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.The doctoral student will undertake an analysis of the politics of natural resource ownership, extraction, and governance through a geographic approach and multiple methods research design. She will seek answers to two sets of focal questions: (1) How have entities based in BRICS nations interacted with national and subnational politics of resource extraction? (2) How are ordinary citizens interpreting and responding to these shifting extractive geopolitics and politics, and which factors shape those interpretations and responses? The student will employ a multi-scalar theoretical framing to explore the interactions between individuals and a range of subnational, national, and international entities. The student will focus her research in Namibia, one of Africa's largest mineral exporters, conducting an in-depth analysis of resource politics and geopolitics at a national level and in two subnational sites with divergent extractive contexts. Integrating quantitative and qualitative methods, she will investigate how local perceptions of resource governance differ between the two primary study sites and in comparison with national-level portrayals by state and private actors.

该博士学位论文研究项目将分析最近的地缘政治转变如何影响发展中国家的国家水平资源治理辩论和次国政治。 博士生将调查国家和地区资源政治之间的相互作用，以及提取经济体的两个更广泛的趋势。 这些趋势中的第一个趋势是来自巴西，俄罗斯，印度，中国和南非的资源提取实体的参与日益加剧，所谓的金砖国家州的特征是拥有大型，快速发展的经济体。 第二个趋势是国家政府参与资源提取的越来越多。自然资源的所有权，治理和收入分配通常是有争议的话题，与提取相关的紧张关系可能会加剧或催化提取国家的政治动荡，尤其是在治理结构较差的国家中。非洲国家和金砖四国行为者参与提取的参与重新提高了外国投资参与者，政府和公民在自然资源提取方面的紧张局势的地缘政治和政治经济影响。这些动态对各种规模的与提取相关的社会关系具有重要意义，但是学术上很少关注这些发展的国家和地区的居民如何理解这些发展。 该项目的发现将通过扩展和测试个人水平因素来塑造公民对资源治理和地缘政治的看法，通过扩展和测试个人水平因素来提高有关资源政治和全球国家日益突出的跨学科社会科学知识。 通过提供有关塑造对资源提取和治理看法的因素的数据，该项目将增强能够理解，预测和解决政治紧张局势的能力，包括暴力，资源丰富的国家，并改善资源治理，尤其是在非洲。 这种增强的知识对美国具有关键的价值，因为它试图重新定义其与发展中国家和迅速发展的国家在全球经济活动中发挥越来越重要的国家的关系。 作为博士学位论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，以使有前途的学生能够建立强大的独立研究职业。她将寻求解决两组重点问题的答案：（1）总部位于金砖国家的实体如何与资源提取的民族和次国统治政治互动？ （2）普通公民如何解释和回应这些不断变化的提取地缘政治和政治，哪些因素可以塑造这些解释和反应？ 该学生将采用多阶段的理论框架来探索个人与一系列次生，国家和国际实体之间的相互作用。该学生将把她的研究集中在非洲最大的矿产出口商之一纳米比亚，对国家一级的资源政治和地缘政治进行了深入的分析，并在两个具有不同提取环境的次生地点。整合定量和定性方法，她将研究两个主要研究地点之间对资源治理的当地看法以及与州和私人参与者的国家水平刻画相比。