Politicised Provision: Development and Welfare under Latin America's New Left

近几十年来，拉丁美洲见证了一场戏剧性的政治左倾。许多左翼政党获得并保住了权力，主要是通过投票箱，学者们将其描述为席卷欧洲大陆的“粉色浪潮”。其中许多政府的政治纲领的核心是一系列针对社会中处境最不利的成员的新的社会方案和福利倡议。在一个不平等程度仍然高得惊人的大陆，这些形式的减贫计划一直是“新左派”政府广受欢迎的核心基础。尽管这些社会计划是“新左派”政府的政治计划的核心，但我们对这些计划的目标人群如何理解和体验却知之甚少。关于“新左派”的政策和政治已经写了很多，但这种评论往往两极分化和相互矛盾。对一些人来说，在经历了一段时间的新自由主义后，再分配社会计划的出现受到了欢迎和庆祝，并强调了贫困受益者福祉的可衡量改善。对于其他人来说，这些项目似乎与日益高涨的民粹主义浪潮捆绑在一起，这股浪潮可能会破坏民主，削弱整个非洲大陆的自由机构；这种趋势被认为与贫穷多数人的利益背道而驰。关注尼加拉瓜的案例，该奖学金旨在通过探索这些社会项目最直接影响其生活的人的视角，超越这些两极分化的辩论。因为有一件事是明确的：对这一系列高度政治化的社会项目表达强烈感受的不仅仅是学者。参与者本身(以及潜在的参与者)对项目的价值和目的持有强有力的意见。事实上，在组成“粉色浪潮”的许多国家，这些项目已经成为农村和城市穷人激烈政治活动的焦点。基于对项目受益者经历的密切的民族志研究，该研究金将寻求促进对这些投入新左翼社会项目的强烈政治希望和抱负如何影响他们的成功和失败的理解。这里要追求的关键思想是，理解福利提供与通过密切的民族志调查揭示的政治主体性的形式重叠的方式将会有很多好处。如果“新左派”社会项目的参与者在这些项目上投入了对政治包容和公民身份认同的强烈渴望，要想理解项目为什么会有这样的结果，就需要理解并考虑到这一复杂的动态。通过朝着这一方向迈出的步伐，该奖学金旨在促进尼加拉瓜及其他地区“新左派”社会福利计划的设计、实施和评估的改进。

Latin America has in recent decades witnessed a dramatic political shift to the left. Numerous leftist political parties have achieved and retained power, primarily through the ballot box, in what scholars have described as a "Pink Tide" sweeping the continent. Central to the political platforms of many of these governments have been a range of novel social programs and welfare initiatives oriented towards the most disadvantaged members of society. In a continent where inequality remains staggeringly high, these forms of poverty-reduction program have been a central basis of the popularity achieved by the governments of the 'new left'.Despite the centrality of these social programs to the political projects of 'new left' governments, we know little about how they are understood and experienced by the people at whom they are targeted. Much has been written about the policies and politics of the 'new left', but this commentary has often been polarised and contradictory. For some, the emergence of redistributive social programs after a period of neoliberalism has been welcomed and celebrated, and measurable improvements in well-being among impoverished beneficiaries have been emphasised. For others, the programs appear to be bound up with a rising tide of populism that threatens to undermine democracy and weaken liberal institutions across the continent; trends which are understood to be contrary to the interests of the poor majority.Focusing on the Nicaraguan case, this fellowship aims to move beyond these polarised debates by exploring the perspective of the people whose lives these social projects affect most directly. Because one thing is clear: it is not just scholars who express strong feelings about this range of highly-politicised social programs. Participants themselves (along with potential participants) hold powerful opinions regarding the value and purpose of the projects. Indeed, in many of the countries which comprise the 'Pink Tide', the projects have become a focal point for intense political activity among the rural and urban poor. Based upon close ethnographic study of the experiences of project beneficiaries, the fellowship will seek to promote understanding of how these intense political hopes and aspirations invested in the social projects of the new left impact upon their successes and failures.The key idea to be pursued here is that there is much to be gained from understanding the ways in which welfare provision overlaps with the forms of political subjectivity revealed by close ethnographic investigation. If participants in 'new left' social projects invest those programs with powerful desires for political inclusion and recognition as citizens, understanding why projects have the results they do requires that this complex dynamic be understood and taken into account. By making steps in this direction, the fellowship aims to promote the improvement of the design, delivery and evaluation of 'new left' social welfare programs in Nicaragua and beyond.