Doctoral Dissertation Research: Urbanization, Development, and Labor Migration

本博士论文研究项目探讨了在非自由主义政治背景下，国家发展计划如何塑造劳动力迁移和城市化。 城市人口现在占世界人口的一半以上，预计到世纪中期，这一比例将增长到三分之二。 其中90%的增长预计将发生在发展中国家，包括那些拥有独裁政府的国家。 本研究项目调查了城市劳动力迁移，这一预计的城市化的关键驱动力，如何可以催化的发展项目，似乎与移民无关，如那些补贴农村房屋建设。 它分析了这些发展项目如何塑造关于现代性的观念，以及这些观念如何反过来鼓励移民。 它还研究了城市移民如何塑造自我和身份感，以及这些如何与国家试图管理其人口的努力相结合。该项目的调查结果将通过学术和非学术渠道广泛传播。 研究结果与关注整个发展中世界快速城市化的社会影响的决策者、非政府组织和发展组织有关。 使用定性（参与者观察，半结构化访谈，调查，文本和话语分析）现场收集的数据，该项目探讨了发展作为规则的理由和其实际成就之间的关系，以及国家权力如何（重新）形状的愿望维斯住房作为一种发展形式。 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。 它还有助于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验如何塑造移民和城市主体性的迁移地理。本研究通过询问村民如何以及为什么做出关于接受和支出住房项目的决定来调查这些广泛的问题;他们如何以及为什么做出关于劳动力迁移的决定;以及城市生活经历如何改变他们的愿望和身份。 虽然该项目使用的是中国青海省藏族人的案例研究，但其方法和研究结果适用于许多其他正在经历快速城市化的地方。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该项目还将提供支持，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NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.