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

世界各地的许多国际非政府组织(INGO)使用性别与发展这个宽泛的类别来描述他们的工作，但在这个总括术语下进行的方案编制各不相同：一些INGO促进涉及健康、教育和职业技能的项目，而另一些INGO则侧重于生殖健康、经济赋权、公民权利和政治参与。许多研究记录了政府间组织在传播全球规范和根据当地情况调整这些规范方面发挥的关键作用。但最近的研究表明，Ingo节目是由当地的政治经济决定的。我们对这种变化如何影响国际非政府组织的运作方式以及对当地利益攸关方的影响知之甚少。该项目探讨了非政府组织的做法、信念和优先事项是如何沿着援助链传播的，也就是方案如何从INGO总部传播到INGO国家办事处，最后传播到执行伙伴。具体而言，本项目询问：(1)来自不同国家的非政府组织组织的援助链有多大差异？(2)执行伙伴，如与这些援助链有关的政府部委的雇员，如何在当地政治和文化背景下理解和谈判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影响这些当地从业人员的自我理解，包括他们的专业身份？该项目将推进有关国际发展援助在促进全球公民社会方面的作用的政策辩论，更具体地说，是关于发展部门不断变化的格局和重要新行为者的出现，并对如何提高美国向非美国国家提供援助的效率和效力产生影响。该项目的数据包括100次深度访谈、10个月的参与者观察和对20份文件的文本分析。它正在收集关于两个援助链内每个组织的定性数据。首先，它在美国INGO总部组织进行深入采访，并在美国双边机构进行采访。然后，通过10个月的实地工作，该项目收集了三个地点的人种学观察和访谈：总部设在美国的INGO外地办事处；INGO海外外地办事处；以及这些办事处的执行伙伴组织。最后，该项目将在INGO海外总部办公室进行短期观察和采访。为补充访谈和人种学调查结果，将完成对INGO文件的文本分析。所有数据将使用ATLAS.TI和开放编码技术进行编码。这一研究设计将使该项目能够分析国际发展方案是如何通过INGO总部和捐助者、INGO外地办事处和当地合作伙伴这三个环节来阐述和传达的。该项目将通过展示国家优先事项塑造全球规范的微观组织和组织间进程，扩展全球民间社会的社会学理论。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.