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

交通运输是城市基础设施发展的一个中心目标。许多因素决定了某种运输方式是否被认为是适当的。对运输业的监管反映了参与运输部门的个人、监管机构和其他方面的优先事项不完全重叠。这个博士论文研究项目调查了不同的文化和监管背景如何导致城市环境中不同的基础设施成果，这些基础设施成果都具有变得更加现代化的目标，但实现现代化的手段不同。它测试了政治人类学中的科学文化人类学理论，以了解城市历史的历史差异如何与现代化的重叠目标相互作用，从而产生不同的基础设施成果。该项目培训一名研究生掌握科学文化人类学理论和方法，并向学术界和非学术界受众广泛传播其研究结果。这一比较项目有助于理解在城市背景下促进或限制现代化项目发展的各种条件。具体而言，它使用混合方法，包括访谈，横断面骑行和文件分析，以研究以下问题：1）对交通基础设施的理解如何影响不同领域的治理; 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，以确定交通基础设施最终如何形成。它在不同的监管历史背景下这样做，以了解治理结构如何影响这些谈判。该博士论文研究项目通过细致入微的透镜，揭示了动机不完全重叠的各种参与者如何在现代化城市中协商基础设施建设。该奖项反映了NSF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.