Doctoral Dissertation Research: Corporate Contributions to Childhood Public Health Outcomes

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。营养不良和其他压力因素已被证明会阻碍儿童的成长和发展。反过来，发育迟缓与大脑发育迟缓、学习能力减弱、学习成绩不佳以及长期职业成就下降有关。在以成长和发展受损为特征的环境中，公司可以慈善地捐赠资源，以帮助受影响的儿童群体。这个博士论文项目考察了私营企业进入公共卫生领域时的动机和做法。除了资助一名人类学研究生在实证、科学数据收集和分析方法方面的培训外，这项研究的结果还加强了对弱势社区卫生干预措施私有化的影响的理解。这项研究还与主要利益攸关方合作，提出了如何改进或重新考虑这些干预措施，以解决更广泛的发展优先事项的战略。这项研究考察了企业慈善项目如何通过基于社区的干预措施来产生和运作关于儿童发育迟缓的知识，这种知识创造如何与围绕身份和发展的更大社会紧张进行对话，以及这些干预措施如何影响目标受益者。该项目有多个目标。首先，研究人员考察了儿童发育迟缓同时被概念化为生物和社会问题的方式的差异。其次，该项目展示了关于儿童成长和发展的话语如何表现身份和遗产的各个方面。此外，还考察了企业慈善家的做法，特别是他们构建社会问题以与干预动机保持一致的方式。最后，调查考察了私人对公共卫生干预措施的投资如何影响儿童的成长和发展。为了回答这些问题，调查依赖于对公司高管、公共卫生官员、公司慈善管理人员和现场工作人员以及这些努力的目标受益者的采访和直接观察。此外，调查还包括档案研究，以评估慈善努力影响公共卫生结果的背景。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Malnutrition and other stressors have been shown to hinder childhood growth and development. In turn, stunted growth is associated with reduced brain development, diminished learning capacity, poor school performance, and declines in long-term career outcomes. In settings characterized by compromised growth and development, corporations may philanthropically contribute resources to assist populations of impacted children. This doctoral dissertation project examines the motivations and practices of private corporations as they insert themselves into domains of public health. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the findings of this research enhances understandings of the effects of privatizing health interventions in disadvantaged communities. In partnership with key stakeholders, this research also generates proposals for how to improve or reconsider these interventions as strategies for addressing broader development priorities.This research examines how corporate philanthropic programs generate and operationalize knowledge about childhood stunting through community-based interventions, how such knowledge-making sits in dialogue with larger social tensions around identities and development, and how these interventions impact their targeted beneficiaries. The project has multiple objectives. First, the investigators examine variation in the ways that childhood stunting is conceptualized simultaneously as a biological and social problem. Second, the project shows how aspects of identity and heritage are represented in discourse about childhood growth and development. In addition, the practices of corporate philanthropists are examined, specifically the ways they frame the social problems to align with the motivations for interventions. Finally, the investigation examines how private investments in public health interventions affect the growth and development of children. To answer these questions the investigation relies on interviews and direct observations of corporate executives, public health officials, corporate philanthropy administrators and fieldworkers, and targeted beneficiaries of these efforts. In addition, the investigation includes archival research to assess the contexts in which philanthropic efforts impact public health outcomes.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.