Doctoral Dissertation Research: Urbanization, Development, and Labor Migration

本博士论文研究项目探讨了非自由政治背景下的国家发展举措如何影响劳动力迁移和城市化。城市人口目前占世界人口的一半以上，预计到21世纪中叶，这一比例将增加到三分之二。在这一增长中，预计90%发生在发展中国家，包括那些拥有威权政府的国家。本研究项目调查了城市劳动力迁移（预计城市化的一个关键驱动因素）如何通过看似与迁移无关的开发项目（例如补贴农村房屋建设的项目）来促进。它分析了这些发展项目如何塑造人们对现代性的看法，以及这些发展项目反过来又如何鼓励移民。它还研究了城市移民是如何塑造自我意识和身份认同的，以及这些是如何与国家治理其人口的努力相配合或相抵触的。该项目的研究结果将通过学术和非学术渠道广泛传播。研究结果与决策者、非政府组织和关注整个发展中国家快速城市化的社会影响的发展组织有关。本项目利用定性（参与者观察、半结构化访谈、调查以及文本和话语分析）实地收集的数据，考察了作为规则基本原理的发展与实际成就之间的关系，以及国家权力如何（重新）塑造与住房作为一种发展形式相比的欲望。该项目通过对专制、非西方背景下的治理和现代性的调查，为发展地理学领域做出了贡献。它还通过分析文化政治和政治经济因素如何共同产生劳动力迁移，以及劳动力迁移的经历如何塑造移民和城市主体性，为移民地理学做出贡献。本研究通过询问村民如何以及为什么在接受和支出住房项目方面做出决定来调查这些广泛的问题；他们如何以及为什么对劳动力迁移做出决定；以及城市生活经历如何改变他们的愿望和身份。作为博士论文研究进步奖，该项目也将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation research project investigates how state development initiatives in non-liberal political contexts shape labor migration and urbanization. Urban populations now account for over half of the world's population, with the proportion projected to grow to two-thirds by the mid-21st century. Of this increase, 90% is expected to take place in developing countries, including those with authoritarian governments. This research project investigates how urban labor migration, a key driver of this projected urbanization, can be catalyzed by development projects that may seem to have little to do with migration, such as those that subsidize rural house construction. It analyzes how these development projects shape ideas about modernity and how these in turn encourage migration. It also investigates how urban migration shapes senses of self and identity, and how these work with or against states' attempts to govern their populations. The project's findings will be widely disseminated via academic and non-academic outlets. Results are relevant to policy-makers, NGOs, and development organizations concerned with the social impacts of rapid urbanization throughout the developing world. Using qualitative (participant observation, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and textual and discourse analysis) field-gathered data, this project examines the relationship between development as a rationale of rule and its actual accomplishment, and how state power (re)shapes desires vis-a-vis housing as a form of development. The project contributes to the field of development geography through its investigation of governmentality and modernity in an authoritarian, non-Western context. It also contributes to the geography of migration by analyzing how cultural politics and political-economic factors come together in producing labor migration, and how the experience of labor migration shapes migrant and urban subjectivities. This study investigates these broad questions by asking how and why villagers make the decisions they do with respect to accepting and spending on housing projects; how and why they make decisions about labor migration; and how urban living experiences change their aspirations and identities. Although this project uses a case study of Tibetans in Qinghai province, China, its approach and findings has applicability in many other places experiencing rapid urbanization. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.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.