Doctoral Dissertation Research: Legal Regulatory Regimes and Small-Scale Business Productivity

长期以来，小型企业一直被视为社区生计的关键。它们是最大的雇主群体，在增长型行业创造新的就业机会方面发挥着重要作用，对地方经济的多样化至关重要。在失业率上升和工农业部门衰退的地区，手工生产尤其被认为是振兴经济的重要渠道。但它们在进入更大的区域和全球市场时面临挑战。关于手工经济的现有研究长期以来一直在争论，随着手工生产在全球市场上越来越受欢迎，手工生产是否可以与大规模生产过程分开。目前尚不清楚地理标志和原产地商标等法律的财产证明在扩大和保护新企业的市场准入方面有何影响。这一研究项目培训学生掌握经验性科学数据收集和分析方法，探讨初步的法律的管理制度对小型企业的生产能力有何影响。除了为人类学研究生的培训提供资金外，研究结果还将传播给探索和管理知识和文化财产的原因、后果和复杂性的援助组织。Aditi Halbe在洛杉矶加州大学Akhil Gupta博士的监督下，将探讨法律的财产认证对手工生产的影响。这项研究将在印度第三大工业化邦古吉拉特邦的Kachchh地区进行。卡奇是许多工匠社区的家园，他们以制作传统手工艺品为主要生计，2001年发生了7.7级地震，摧毁了社区的生计。地震发生后，发展组织、社会企业和政府项目帮助重新参与并扩大了传统工艺品的市场，重申了手工制作的重要性。因此，克奇处于独特的位置，可以了解手工生产的日常做法如何与更大的发展议程相互交叉，在当前社会，生态和政治不确定性面前协调生计问题。该研究关注工匠和设计师之间的合作，为国际市场创新产品，研究工匠如何通过调整传统工艺生产的日常流程来满足全球消费者的需求。方法包括传统的民族志数据收集技术，如参与观察，深入的半结构化访谈，以及与工匠生产者和利益相关者，开发工作者和营利组织的口述历史。通过原产地商标和地理标志等法律的文化财产名称对这些产品进行认证和监管，本研究将分析对小规模手工生产者制定经济发展战略的体制机制。研究结果将解决手工生产者和消费者如何设想和谈判他们在全球市场中的关系。

Small-scale businesses have long been viewed as crucial to community livelihoods. They constitute the largest block of employers, are significant in creating new jobs in growth industries, and are critical for diversifying the local economy. Artisanal production in particular has been identified as an important channel for economic revitalization in areas afflicted by increased unemployment and declines in the agricultural and industrial sectors. But they face challenges when entering larger regional and global markets. Existing research on artisanal economies has long debated whether artisanal production can remain separate from processes of mass production as their popularity increases in global markets. It is not clear what influence legal property certifications, such as a geographic indication (GI) and origin trademarks, are having in expanding and protecting market access for new businesses. This research project, which trains a student in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores what impact introductory legal regulatory regimes have on the productive capacity of small-scale enterprises. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology, findings will be disseminated to aid organizations that explore and manage the causes, consequences, and complexities of intellectual and cultural property. Aditi Halbe, under the supervision of Dr. Akhil Gupta of the University of California, Los Angeles, will explore the impact of legal property certifications on artisanal production. This research will be conducted in Kachchh district of India's third largest industrialized state, Gujarat. Home to many artisan communities that make traditional crafts as their primary means of livelihood, Kachchh experienced a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in 2001 that devastated community livelihoods. Following the earthquake, development organizations, social enterprises, and government programs helped reengage and expand markets for traditional crafts, reaffirming the importance of artisanal production. Kachchh is thus uniquely situated to understanding how daily practices of artisanal production intersect with larger development agendas, attuned to livelihood concerns in the face of current, social, ecological and political uncertainties. Focusing on collaborations between artisans and designers to innovate products for international markets, the research will examine how artisans negotiate the demands of global consumers through adjustments to everyday processes of traditional craft production. Methods include traditional ethnographic data collection techniques such as participant observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and oral histories with artisan producers and stakeholders, development workers, and for-profit organizations. Attending to the authentication and regulation of these products through legal cultural property designations like origin trademarks and geographic indication, this research will analyze the institutional mechanisms by which economic development strategies are enacted upon small-scale artisanal producers. The research findings will address how artisanal producers and consumers envision and negotiate their relationship within the global market.