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

大规模基础设施规划表明，增加对一个国家基本系统和服务的投资，可能会给该国公民带来一个全新的未来。然而，先前对政府投资计划的研究强调，雄心勃勃的国家计划所承诺的未来往往是遥不可及的，因为大规模的项目很少按时或按计划完成。因此，对于那些受到复杂计划所固有的漫长执行过程影响的人来说，国家规划可能既是希望之源，也是恐惧之源。随着投资重建国家基础设施的提议越来越受欢迎，无论是在美国还是在全球的工业化国家，迫切需要了解长期大规模基础设施规划投资的最终影响。除了提供经费培训一名人类学研究生掌握严格数据收集和分析的科学方法外，该项目还将使更广泛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。在Jean Comaroff博士的指导下，哈佛大学博士生Courtney T. Wittekind将探讨在大规模基础设施计划的背景下，投资、投机和规划的策略。扩展的人种学研究将在缅甸的文化和经济中心仰光市进行。作为一项令人印象深刻的国家主导计划的所在地，该计划提出将城市扩大超过20,000英亩，仰光是研究大规模国家主导规划的利弊的理想地点。研究人员将重点关注仰光地区的西南郊区，包括这个城市扩张计划重新开发的三个乡镇。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。第一组是关于生活在仰光地区西南部的人们所做的日常决定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。第二组问题将第一个问题置于缅甸正在进行的民主转型的背景下，询问人们对市政和区域规划的印象如何与他们对国家政治的看法联系起来。本研究将透过参与观察、入户调查、半结构化与非结构化访谈、档案分析等民族志研究方法收集资料。本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根据可能存在的风险，更好地评估基础设施投资的前景。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。

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.