Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnographic Study of National Security Policies at the Local Level

任何政府的责任之一是提供国内安全。有效地这样做的一个重大挑战是，新的政策和支持技术往往在不同的社会结构层次上产生不同的影响，特别是在非常异质的人口中。其中一些影响是无意的，可能会产生意想不到的局部反应。该奖项支持的研究将使用案例研究方法和人类学的密集方法来仔细研究如何以及为什么会发生这种情况。 这项研究将有助于阐明当代社会的内部复杂结构，这将有助于提高社会科学的理解。研究结果还将有助于政策制定者弥合安全改革目标与地方一级后果和经验之间的差距。这项研究将由马萨诸塞州大学人类学博士生安娜·德尔孔德在杰奎琳·乌尔拉博士的监督下进行。研究人员将在墨西哥进行为期12个月的研究，2006年为打击有组织犯罪和贩毒而实施的安全改革梅里达倡议提供了一个适当的研究机会，因为该倡议已经实施了足够长的时间，可以追踪其在当地的影响。为了产生更丰富和更全面的深入了解，研究人员将重点缩小到一个特定的亚人口，即米霍坎州的土著妇女。她将使用混合方法收集有关当地如何体验该倡议的数据，以及该倡议如何与当地人民为保护自己而制定的其他战略相互作用的数据。本研究采用横断面设计。将在三个社区通过非正式和半结构化访谈、参与者观察、自由列表研讨会和照片语音研讨会收集数据，以产生定性和定量数据、实地记录、访谈记录和视觉叙述。研究结果将与多个利益相关者分享，包括研究参与者，地方政府官员和寻求提高安全改革有效性的社区成员。该奖项反映了NSF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。

One responsibility of any government is to provide for domestic security. A significant challenge in doing so effectively is that new policies and supporting technologies often turn out to have differential effects at different social structural levels particularly in very heterogenous populations. Some of these effects are unintended and may produce unanticipated local responses. The research supported by this award will use a case study approach and the intensive methodologies of anthropology to examine closely how and why this happens. The research will help illuminate the inner complex structures of contemporary society, which will contribute to improved social scientific understanding. Findings from the research also will help policy makers bridge the gap between the goals of security reforms and local-level consequences and experiences.The research will be carried out by University of Massachusetts anthropology doctoral student, Ana Del Conde, under the supervision of Dr. Jacqueline Urla. The researcher will undertake 12 months of research in Mexico where the Merida Initiative, a security reform implemented in 2006 to combat organized crime and drug trafficking, provides an appropriate research opportunity because it has been in place long enough to trace out its local effects. In order to produce a richer and more complete in-depth understanding, the researcher has narrowed her focus to a particular sub-population, indigenous women in the state of Michoacan. Using a mixed-methods approach, she will collect data on how the Initiative is being locally experienced, and how it interacts with other strategies that people have developed locally to protect themselves. The research has a cross-sectional design. Data will be collected in three communities through informal and semi-structured interviews, participant observation, free-listing workshops, and photovoice workshops to produce qualitative and quantitative data, field notes, interview transcripts, and visual narratives. Research results will be shared with multiple stakeholders including research participants, local government officials, and community members who seek to improve the effectiveness of security reforms. Results also will contribute to the growing body of social scientific theoretical work on conflict and security.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.