Doctoral Dissertation Research: Competing Donor Imaginaries: Gender, Development, and Comparative Aid Chains

世界各地许多国际非政府组织使用性别与发展这一宽泛的类别来描述它们的工作，但在这一总括术语下开展的方案编制各不相同：一些非政府组织促进解决保健、教育和职业技能问题的项目，而另一些非政府组织则侧重于生殖健康、经济赋权、公民权利和政治参与。许多研究记录了非政府组织在传播全球规范和使这些规范适应当地情况方面发挥的关键作用。但最近的研究表明，非政府组织的计划是由当地的政治经济决定的。我们对这种变化如何影响非政府组织组织运作的方式以及对当地利益相关者的影响知之甚少。本项目探讨了国际非政府组织的实践、信念和优先事项如何沿着援助链传播，或者项目如何从国际非政府组织总部传播到国际非政府组织国家办事处，最后传播到执行伙伴。具体来说，本项目的问题是：(1)不同国家的非政府组织组织的援助链在多大程度上存在差异，以及如何存在差异？(2)实施伙伴，如与这些援助链相关的政府部门雇员，如何在当地政治和文化背景下理解和协商资助非政府组织的优先事项？(3)与非政府组织的接触在多大程度上塑造了这些当地从业者的自我理解，包括他们的职业身份？该项目将推动有关国际发展援助在促进全球公民社会中的作用的政策辩论，更具体地说，是关于发展部门不断变化的格局和重要新参与者的出现，对如何提高美国向非美国国家提供的援助的效率和效果具有影响。国家。该项目的数据包括100次深度访谈，10个月的参与性观察，以及20份文件的文本分析。它正在收集两个援助链内每个组织的定性数据。一是对美国非政府组织总部机构进行深度访谈，同时对美国双边机构进行访谈。然后，通过10个月的实地考察，该项目收集了三个地点的人种学观察和访谈：美国非政府组织的实地办事处；国际非政府组织在国外的外地办事处；以及这些办事处的执行伙伴组织。最后，项目将在国外的一个非政府组织总部进行短期观察和采访。为了补充访谈和民族志调查结果，将完成对非政府组织文件的文本分析。所有数据将使用ATLAS进行编码。TI和开放编码技术。这一研究设计将使该项目能够分析国际发展计划是如何通过三个环节进行阐述和沟通的，从国际非政府组织总部和捐助者，到国际非政府组织外地办事处，再到当地合作伙伴。该项目将通过展示国家优先事项塑造全球规范的微观层面的组织和组织间过程，扩展全球公民社会的社会学理论。它还将有助于为发展的社会学理论提供信息，特别是为发展中世界的性别问题提供信息的社会学理论。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。

Many international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) around the world use the broad category of gender and development to describe their work, but the programming carried out under this umbrella term varies: some INGOS promote projects addressing health, education, and vocational skills, while others focus on reproductive health, economic empowerment, civil rights, and political participation. Numerous studies document the key role INGOs play in transmitting global norms and adapting those norms in local contexts. But more recent research has established that INGO programming is shaped by its local political economy. We know relatively little about how this variation affects the way that INGOs organize their operations and with what consequences for local stakeholders. This project explores how the practices, beliefs and priorities of INGOs are transmitted along aid chains, or the links through which programs travel from INGO headquarters to INGO country offices, and finally to implementing partners. Specifically, this project asks: (1) To what degree, and how, do aid chains organized by INGOs from different countries vary?; (2) How do implementing partners, such as employees in government ministries connected to these aid chains, understand and negotiate the priorities of the funding INGOs in local political and cultural context?; and, (3) To what extent does engagement with INGOs shape the self-understandings of these local practitioners, including their professional identities? The project will advance policy debates regarding the role of international development aid in promoting global civil society, and more specifically, the changing landscape of the development sector and the emergence of important new actors, with implications for how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. aid provided to non-U.S. countries.Data from this project are comprised of 100 in-depth interviews, 10 months of participant observation, and a textual analysis of 20 documents. It is collecting qualitative data on each organization within two aid chains. First, it conducts in-depth interviews in U.S. INGO headquarters organizations, as well as interviews in the U.S. bilateral agency. Then, through 10 months of fieldwork, the project collects ethnographic observation and interviews in three sites: the field office of a U.S.-based INGO; an INGO field office abroad; and an implementing partner organization of these offices. Finally, the project will conduct short-term observation and interviews in an INGO headquarters office abroad. To supplement interview and ethnographic findings, textual analysis of INGO documents will be completed. All data will be coded using ATLAS.TI and open coding techniques. This research design will enable the project to analyze how international development programs are articulated and communicated across the three links, from INGO headquarters and donors, to INGO field offices, to local partners. This project will extend sociological theories of global civil society by demonstrating the micro-level organizational and inter-organizational processes through which national priorities shape global norms. It will also help to inform sociological theories of development, particularly those that inform issues related to gender in the developing world.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.