Doctoral Dissertation Research: Infrastructural Development and Urban Participatory Governance

设计和维护基础设施既是一个技术问题，也是一个社会问题。了解治理、通信系统和机械基础设施之间的相互作用是开发和管理城市空间的关键部分。这项研究培养了一名研究生严谨的经验数据收集和分析方法，追踪了道路建筑环境、用户的社会生活和他们参与的谈判过程之间的联系。通过揭示基础设施意想不到的功能方式，本研究将有助于城市规划者、市政机构和其他投资于城市空间治理的机构之间进行更广泛的讨论。Neha Dhole在匹兹堡大学Laura Brown博士的指导下，将探索规划景观中社会距离模型与城市基础设施之间的关系。在许多城市，道路和周围空间的使用方式很少得到市政机构的认可。它们是人们睡觉、出售食物、停放车辆、张贴广告以及参与其他形式的联系和争论的地方，这些联系和争论塑造了城市生活。本研究考察了印度新德里居民、工人、市政机构和其他州政府之间关于道路养护的争论。由于新德里是参与式城市发展项目的试点，因此这里是提出此类问题的合适实验室。该项目的重点是由德里发展局（Delhi Development Authority）规划和建设的几个社区之一，旨在促进居民之间的世俗主义和平等。通过对居民、街头小贩、家政工人、技术专家和官员的访谈，以及通过面对面交谈、在线交流、请愿和通讯等方式观察他们之间的互动，本研究将考察道路物质基础设施与对话、制度和社会形式之间的联系。该项目将结合人类学、社会语言学和城市规划的分析模型，以更好地了解道路和其他通信网络的相互影响。研究结果将有助于构建和评估参与式治理体系，特别是有助于思考社交媒体如何影响地方、城市和国家层面的决策过程。更广泛地说，这项研究将绘制出印度及其他地区宗教、阶级和公共空间之间不断变化的联系。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。

Designing and maintaining infrastructures is as much a social problem as a technical one. Understanding the interplay between governance, communication systems, and mechanical infrastructures is a critical part of developing and managing urban spaces. This study, which trains a graduate student in methods of rigorous, empirical data collection and analysis, traces connections between the built environments of roads, the social lives of users, and the processes of negotiation they engage in. By revealing unexpected ways in which infrastructures function, this research will contribute to broader discussions among urban planners, municipal bodies, and other institutions invested in the governance of urban spaces.Neha Dhole, under the supervision of Dr. Laura Brown of the University of Pittsburgh, will explore the relationship between models of social distance and urban infrastructures in planned landscapes. In many cities, roads and surrounding spaces are used in ways that are rarely recognized by municipal bodies. They are places where people sleep, sell food, park vehicles, post advertisements, and engage in other forms of connection and contestation that shape urban life. This research examines debates among residents, workers, municipal bodies, and other state authorities over the care of roads in New Delhi, India, an appropriate laboratory for asking such questions because of its pilot of a participatory urban development project. The project focuses on one of several neighborhoods planned and built by the Delhi Development Authority to promote secularism and equality among dwellers. Drawing on interviews with residents, street vendors, domestic workers, technical experts, and bureaucrats, along with observation of interactions among them through face-to-face conversations, online exchanges, petitions, and newsletters, the study will examine the link between material infrastructure of roads and conversations, institutions, and forms of sociality. The project will combine analytic models from anthropology, sociolinguistics, and urban planning to better understand the enmeshment of roads and other communication networks. Results will be useful in framing and evaluating participatory governance systems, particularly in thinking through how social media can shape decision-making processes at the local, municipal, and national levels. More broadly, the study will map shifting connections between religion, class, and public spaces in India and beyond.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.