Doctoral Dissertation Research: Evaluating Risk and Uncertainty in Urban Infrastructural Planning

大规模的基础设施规划提出，增加对一个国家的基本系统和服务的投资可能会为其公民带来一个改变的未来。然而，此前对政府投资计划的研究强调，雄心勃勃的国家规划所承诺的未来往往遥不可及，因为大型项目很少按时或按计划完成。因此，国家计划可能同样是希望的来源，也是受复杂计划固有的长期执行过程影响的人们的恐惧来源。在美国和地球仪的工业化国家，投资重建国家基础设施的建议越来越受欢迎，因此迫切需要了解长期大规模基础设施规划投资的最终影响。除了为培训一名人类学研究生提供资金，使其掌握严格的数据收集和分析的科学方法外，该项目还将使更多的受众参与科学进程，并将其研究结果广泛传播给投资于优化城市基础设施规划的组织。 哈佛大学博士生考特尼·T.由Jean Comaroff博士提供咨询的Wittekind将探讨在大规模基础设施计划的背景下采用何种投资，投机和规划策略。将在缅甸的文化和经济中心仰光市（原仰光）进行广泛的民族志研究。作为一个令人印象深刻的国家主导的计划，建议扩大城市超过20,000英亩的网站，仰光是一个理想的位置，为研究大规模的国家主导的规划的优点和缺点。研究人员将专注于仰光地区的西南郊区，包括三个城镇的重建目标，这一城市扩张计划。在那里，她将提出两组关于大规模基础设施规划影响的问题。第一组询问了仰光西南地区居民的日常决策与他们对城市扩张计划、进展和未来潜力的看法之间的关系。第二组问题将第一组问题置于缅甸正在进行的民主过渡的背景下，询问人们对城市和区域规划的印象如何与他们对国家政治的看法相关联。研究人员将通过人种学研究收集数据，包括参与者观察，家庭调查，半结构化和非结构化访谈以及档案分析。这项研究的结论将为个人、市政当局和国家层面的规划之间的关系提供新的见解，同时也有助于决策者和民间社会组织更好地评估基础设施投资的前景，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识产权进行评估，被认为值得支持。优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Large-scale infrastructural planning proposes that increased investment in a nation's basic systems and services might bring about a transformed future for its citizenry. Yet, previous research on governmental investment plans stresses that the futures promised by ambitious state-planning often remain out of reach, given that expansive projects are rarely completed on time or as according to plan. Thus, state planning might equally be a source of hope and a source of fear for people impacted by the protracted implementation processes inherent to complex plans. With proposals to invest in the rebuilding of national infrastructure growing in popularity, both in the United States and in industrializing nations across the globe, an understanding of the ultimate effects of investment in long-term, large-scale infrastructure planning is urgently needed. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in scientific methods of rigorous data collection and analysis, the project would engage a wider audience in the scientific process, and broadly disseminate its findings to organizations invested in optimizing urban infrastructural planning. Harvard University doctoral student Courtney T. Wittekind, advised by Dr. Jean Comaroff, will explore what strategies for investment, speculation, and planning are employed in the context of a large-scale infrastructural plan. Extended ethnographic research will be conducted in the city of Yangon (formerly Rangoon), Myanmar's cultural and economic center. As the site for an impressive state-led plan that proposes to expand the city by over 20,000 acres, Yangon is an ideal location for the study of the advantages and disadvantages of large-scale state-led planning. The researcher will focus on the Yangon region's southwestern outskirts, including three townships targeted for redevelopment by this city expansion plan. There, she will ask two sets of questions about the effects of large-scale infrastructural planning. The first set asks about the relationship between everyday decisions made by those living in the Yangon region's southwest, and their perception of the city expansion plan, its progress, and future potential. The second set of questions contextualizes the first within Myanmar's ongoing democratic transition, asking how people's impressions of municipal and regional planning relate to their perceptions of national politics. The researcher will collect data through ethnographic research, including participant observation, household surveys, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, and archival analysis. The conclusions of this research will provide new insights into the relationships between planning occurring at the level of the individual, the municipality, and the nation, while also helping policymakers and civil society organizations better assess the promise of infrastructural investment, in light of its possible risks.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.