Infrastructure and livelihoods along China's Belt and Road: The case of coffee farming in Shan State, Myanmar

中国“一带一路”沿线基础设施与民生：以缅甸掸邦咖啡种植为例

• 批准号: 2575860
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Bristol
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2575860
• 关键词: Infrastructure; livelihoods; along; China; Belt

Throughout much of the Global South, expanding infrastructure and agrarian change are remaking the political ecologies of communities on the margins. Transformational development projects-"distance-demolishing technologies'' of the state (Scott, 2009)-are pushing these groups to redefine their relationships to livelihoods and natural resources. Communities across the Global South are navigating the challenges of increasing material affluence and increasing material vulnerability. Infrastructure, through networks like China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is effectively creating new frontiers of capitalism-sites where states' political-economic ideals come into contention with local resource use patterns and livelihoods (Eilenberg, 2014; Pinkaew, 2012; Woods, 2011).To understand these conflicts at the frontiers of capitalism, there is a need for research into the livelihood choices of individuals and communities, and how they articulate new positionalities in discourses of development and power. Since Conway and Chambers' foundational study of livelihoods (1992), researchers have used the sustainable livelihoods approach to develop an understanding of the local and the individual; critiques have expanded this to analyze structures and processes-of globalization, industrialization, colonialism, state expansion and economic integration (de Haan, 2012; Scoones, 2009). There is now a need for multi-scalar and deeper research into local "ways of operating" at the intersection of infrastructures and livelihoods-into procedures of everyday creativity and "the dispersed, tactical, and makeshift creativity of groups or individuals already caught in the nets of 'discipline'" (de Certeau, 1984; Carney and Watts, 1990).Proposed research projectThe dynamics of changing livelihoods amid a landscape of novel infrastructure are exemplified in Myanmar's Shan State, an upland ethnic area where many groups have historically contested state power and development projects under China's BRI are altering state-margin relations in new ways. One livelihood transition that illustrates shifting state-margin relations is the emergence of high-value coffee farming, pushed by development actors, NGOs and the Myanmar government over the last two decades as an alternative to widespread opium farming (Winrock, 2017). Livelihoods in Shan State have long reflected a tenuous relationship to state power through traditional swidden agriculture and opium cultivation (McCoy, 2003; Meehan, 2011; Scott, 2009). While efforts to support coffee farming have failed to supplant opium (Meehan, 2020), many communities in Shan State are now turning towards high-value coffee.I propose to study choices, experiences and understandings of shifting livelihoods via these coffee farming communities in Shan State. Using immersive participant observation, interviewing and mapping methodologies, I propose to: (i) identify factors that lead households to coffee farming; (ii) explore the meaning of these changes for the diverse ethnic minority individuals, households and communities in Shan State; (iii) study how large-scale infrastructure alters livelihoods through economic and state integration; and (iv) investigate changes in everyday state-margin relations. In-depth, ethnographic methodologies will help expand present understanding of how local communities navigate impacts of agrarian and livelihood change. This project will study local choices and understandings to advance research on what are essentially global phenomena: the expansion of infrastructure and the remaking of our relationships to natural resources and livelihoods. This study of livelihood changes along China's BRI informs an understanding of how state-margin relations are shifting at new "frontiers of capitalism".

在全球南部的大部分地区，不断扩大的基础设施和农业变革正在重塑边缘社区的政治生态。转型发展项目-国家的“消除距离的技术”（Scott，2009年）-正在推动这些群体重新定义他们与生计和自然资源的关系。全球南方的社区正在应对日益增加的物质富裕和日益增加的物质脆弱性的挑战。通过中国的“一带一路”倡议（BRI）等网络，基础设施正在有效地创造资本主义的新边界-国家的政治经济理想与当地资源使用模式和生计发生冲突（Eilenberg，2014; Pinkaew，2012;为了理解资本主义前沿的这些冲突，有必要研究个人和社区的生计选择，以及他们如何在发展和权力的话语中阐明新的立场。自Conway和Chambers的生计基础研究（1992年）以来，研究人员使用可持续生计方法来发展对地方和个人的理解;批评已经扩展到分析全球化，工业化，殖民主义，国家扩张和经济一体化的结构和过程（de哈安，2012; Scoones，2009）。现在需要对基础设施和社区交叉点的当地“运作方式”进行多尺度和更深入的研究-进入日常创造力的程序和“已经陷入'纪律'网的群体或个人的分散，战术和临时创造力”（de Certeau，1984年;拟议的研究项目缅甸的掸邦，这是一个高地民族地区，历史上许多群体都在争夺国家权力，中国“一带一路”倡议下的发展项目正在以新的方式改变国家边缘关系。一个说明国家利润关系变化的生计转变是高价值咖啡种植的出现，在过去二十年中，发展参与者，非政府组织和缅甸政府推动了咖啡种植，作为广泛种植鸦片的替代品（Winrock，2017）。长期以来，掸邦的生计反映了通过传统的刀耕火种农业和鸦片种植与国家权力的脆弱关系（麦考伊，2003年;米汉，2011年;斯科特，2009年）。虽然支持咖啡种植的努力未能取代鸦片（Meehan，2020），掸邦的许多社区现在正在转向高价值的咖啡。我建议研究通过这些咖啡种植社区在掸邦改变生计的选择，经验和理解。使用沉浸式参与者观察，访谈和绘图方法，我建议：（一）确定导致家庭种植咖啡的因素;（二）探索这些变化对掸邦不同少数民族个人，家庭和社区的意义;（三）研究大型基础设施如何通过经济和国家一体化改变生计;（四）调查日常国家边缘关系的变化。深入的人种学方法将有助于扩大目前对当地社区如何应对农业和生计变化影响的理解。该项目将研究当地的选择和理解，以推进对基本上是全球现象的研究：基础设施的扩展和我们与自然资源和生计关系的重建。这项关于中国“一带一路”沿着民生变化的研究，有助于理解国家边缘关系在新的“资本主义前沿”如何转变。