Doctoral Dissertation Research: The effects of modernization on regulation of the transportation industry

交通是城市基础设施发展的中心目标。许多因素决定了一种交通方式是否被认为是合适的。交通运输行业的监管反映了交通运输部门的个人、监管机构和其他方面不完全重叠的优先事项。本博士论文研究项目探讨了不同的文化和监管背景如何导致城市背景下不同的基础设施成果，这些基础设施的目标是变得更加现代化，但实现现代化的手段不同。它在政治人类学中检验科学的文化人类学理论，以了解城市历史的历史差异如何与重叠的现代化目标相互作用，从而产生不同的基础设施结果。该项目对一名研究生进行科学文化人类学理论和方法的培训，并向学术界和非学术界广泛传播其研究成果。这个比较项目有助于了解在城市环境中促进或限制现代化项目发展的各种条件。具体来说，它使用混合方法，包括访谈、样带骑行和文件分析来研究以下问题：1)对交通基础设施的理解如何影响不同地区的治理；2)参与交通部门的个人如何应对不同的治理结构；3)个人和官员如何协商他们的观点，以决定交通基础设施的最终形态。它在具有不同监管历史的背景下这样做，以了解治理结构如何影响这些谈判。这个博士论文研究项目使用了一个细致入微的镜头，揭示了不同动机不完全重叠的参与者如何在现代化城市的基础设施发展中进行谈判。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。

Transportation is a central target for infrastructural development in urban contexts. Numerous factors determine whether a given form of transportation is deemed appropriate. Regulation of the transportation industry reflects incompletely overlapping priorities from individuals involved in the transportation sector, regulatory bodies, and others. This doctoral dissertation research project investigates how different cultural and regulatory contexts lead to different infrastructural outcomes in urban contexts that share the aim of becoming more modern, yet differ in the means of achieving modernization. It tests scientific cultural anthropological theories in political anthropology to understand how historical differences in cities' histories interact with overlapping goals of modernization to generate different infrastructural outcomes. The project trains a graduate student in scientific cultural anthropological theories and methods and disseminates its findings broadly to academic and non-academic audiences. This comparative project helps understand the conditions that variously promote or limit the development of modernization projects in urban contexts. Specifically, it uses mixed methods, including interviews, transect rides, and document analysis to examine questions surrounding 1) how understandings of transportation infrastructure affect governance in different areas; 2) how individuals involved in the transportation sector respond to different governance structures; and 3) how individuals and officials negotiate their perspectives to determine how transportation infrastructure is ultimately shaped. It does so in contexts with different regulatory histories to understand how governance structures affect these negotiations. This doctoral dissertation research project uses a nuanced lens to shed light on how various actors with incompletely overlapping motivations negotiate infrastructural developments in modernizing cities.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.