Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Quantification of Geography and Social Relations in Agrarian Reforms

该奖项支持的研究调查了土地和其他资源在农村土地改革项目中是如何量化的。土地改革重新分配获得初级生产资源的机会。这种重新分配在很大程度上取决于测量和计算，这些测量和计算在不同的环境中可能会有很大差异。研究人员试图了解这些数字是如何产生的，以及它们是如何被纳入政府规划和设计的。这项研究之所以重要，是因为从国家人口普查到教育测试，各种量化方法已经成为当代生活的常见部分。这项研究的重点是实际数字产生的微观过程以及谁制造了这些数字。这些信息将帮助使用数字做出重要决定的政策制定者和生活受到这些决定影响的公民更好地理解量化背后的复杂性。这项研究将由密歇根大学人类学博士生盛龙进行，他的导师是埃里克·米格勒博士。龙将以中国的农村土地改革为案例进行研究。这一重大的国家量化项目提供了一个在美国无法获得的丰富而独特的机会，尽管她的研究结果将适用于美国。Long将调查农村居民和其他社会参与者如何衡量和计算农业资源。她用两组问题构建了她的研究。第一套是关于数字治理的。在土地改革中，社会参与者--农民、官僚、政府工作人员和测量员--如何单独和合作地产生数字？第二组问题是关于人格和财产的量化。人们如何操纵产生社会标签的数字标准？当他们将社会角色从一个家庭转移到另一个社区时，他们如何根据背景计算土地？龙将在三个主要地点收集数据：村庄家庭和农田；一个地理信息系统调查公司；以及家庭和机构档案。这项研究的发现将有助于通过数字的视角对社会范畴和关系进行跨学科的理论研究。它还将为世界各地的政策制定者提供数据，他们需要了解当地人口是如何被大型量化项目吸引、影响和影响的。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The research supported by this award investigates how land and other resources are quantified in rural land reform projects. Land reforms reallocate access to primary productive resources. This reallocation critically depends on measurements and calculations that can vary significantly from one context to another. The researcher seeks to understand how these numbers are produced and how they are incorporated into governmental planning and design. The research is important because quantifications of all kinds, from national censuses to educational testing, have become a common part of contemporary life. This research focuses on the micro-processes by which the actual numbers are produced and who produces them. This information will help both policy makers who use numbers to make important decisions and citizens whose lives are affected by those decisions to better understand the complexities that can lie behind quantifications.The research will be undertaken by Sheng Long, a University of Michigan anthropology doctoral student, who is supervised by Dr. Erik Mueggler. Long will use rural land reform in China as a case study. This major national quantification project provides a rich and unique opportunity that would not be available in the United States, although the results of her study will be applicable to the U.S. Long will investigate how rural residents and other social actors measure and calculate agricultural resources. She has structured her research with two sets of queries. The first set is about numerical governance. How do social actors--farmers, bureaucrats, government staff, and surveyors--produce numbers, individually and cooperatively, in land reforms? The second set of questions is about the quantification of personhood and belongings. How do people manipulate numerical standards that generate social labeling? How do they calculate land contextually when they shift social roles from household to neighborhood to community? Long will collect data in three major sites: village households and agricultural fields; a GIS survey company; and familial and institutional archives. Findings from the research will contribute to interdisciplinary theorization of social category and relations through the lens of numbers. It also will provide data for policymakers worldwide who need to understand how local population are drawn into, affect, and are affected by large-scale quantification projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.