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

这个博士论文研究项目将分析最近的地缘政治变化如何影响发展中国家的国家级资源治理辩论和国家以下政治。 该博士生将研究国家和国家以下资源政治与采掘经济中两个更广泛趋势之间的相互作用。 第一个趋势是巴西、俄罗斯、印度、中国和南非的资源开采实体越来越多地参与进来，这些国家被称为金砖国家，其特点是经济规模大、增长快。 第二个趋势是各国政府越来越多地参与资源开采。自然资源所有权、治理和收入分配往往是有争议的话题，与开采有关的紧张局势可能加剧或催化开采国的政治动荡，特别是在治理结构不佳的国家。非洲国家和金砖国家参与者越来越多地参与开采活动，重新引发了外国投资者、政府和公民之间在自然资源开采方面的紧张关系的地缘政治和政治经济影响。这些动态在各种规模上对与采掘有关的社会关系产生了重大影响，但很少有学者关注采掘发生的国家和地方的居民如何理解这些发展。 该项目的研究结果将通过扩展和测试对塑造公民对资源治理和地缘政治的看法的个人层面因素的研究，推进关于资源政治和金砖国家日益增长的全球突出性的跨学科社会科学知识。 通过提供有关影响资源开采和治理观念的因素的数据，该项目将提高理解、预测和解决资源丰富国家包括暴力在内的政治紧张局势的能力，并改善资源治理，特别是在非洲。 这种增强的知识对美国至关重要，因为它寻求重新定义与发展中国家和在全球经济活动中发挥越来越大作用的快速增长国家的关系。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生提供支持，使其能够建立强大的独立研究事业。博士生将通过地理方法和多种方法研究设计，对自然资源所有权，开采和治理的政治进行分析。她将寻求两组焦点问题的答案：（1）金砖国家的实体如何与国家和国家以下一级的资源开采政策互动？ (2)普通公民如何解释和应对这些不断变化的地缘政治和政治，哪些因素塑造了这些解释和反应？ 学生将采用多标量理论框架来探索个人与一系列国家以下，国家和国际实体之间的互动。该学生将把她的研究重点放在纳米比亚，非洲最大的矿产出口国之一，在国家一级和两个具有不同采掘背景的地方进行资源政治和地缘政治的深入分析。结合定量和定性的方法，她将调查如何在两个主要研究地点之间的资源治理的地方观念不同，并在国家和私人行为者的国家一级的描绘比较。

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.