Dissertation Research: Government Accountability: Learning from the People's Science Movements

虽然研究表明，公众参与是可持续发展项目的重要组成部分，但印度政府的科技项目总体上把预期受益者排除在农村技术设计之外。相反，印度的人民科学组织利用了参与，让当地用户自己设计技术。本论文研究项目运用科学技术研究和政治生态学的理论框架，研究人民科学组织所采用的公众参与技术，并建议如何重新设计政府计划以识别和奖励这些行动。印度的工程师、医生、活动家和学者建立了人民科学组织。这些小组正在通过科学家和农村社区之间的网络实施适当的技术。通过多地点的民族志研究，本研究比较了三个组织的工作——两个人民科学组织和一个政府机构——它们正在为马哈拉施特拉邦的农村家庭开发水项目。两个人民科学项目——巴利拉贾大坝和奈加翁村项目——被印度环境活动人士认定为参与式发展和流域管理的典范。第三个案例记录了Krishna Koyna灌溉计划，这是一个正在建设中的地区政府项目。本研究比较了这三个案例，得出组织属性、社区参与水平与水项目结果之间的关系。通过这些比较，研究考察了人民科学组织在地方层面应用的参与策略是否可以可行地扩展到区域政府规划中。该项目还调查了工作人员参与或排除当地居民意见的个人和职业动机。为了回答这些问题，使用了一系列定性方法，包括民族志、焦点小组、深度访谈、概念图、档案研究和视频文档。在完成三个案例研究之后，将召开焦点小组会议，召集所有三个组织的成员，就参与性发展展开对话。这些会议的目标是描述使在技术发展中促进民主和问责制成为可能的体制动力。这些会议的成果将用于设计互动讲习班和示范项目，将政府工作人员和非政府组织聚集在一起，以鼓励能力建设和知识分享工作。虽然本论文的研究重点是来自同一地区和水部门的案例研究，但用于将政府官员和社区成员聚集在一起讨论公众参与技术设计的动态的概念模型可以应用于其他地区和资源部门，如能源和农业。

While research has demonstrated that public participation is a vital ingredient for sustainable development projects, Indian government science and technology programs have by and large excluded intended beneficiaries from designing rural technologies. On the contrary, People's Science organizations in India have leveraged participation so those local users are designing technologies themselves. This dissertation research project mobilizes the theoretical frameworks of science and technology studies and political ecology to study the public participation techniques employed by People's Science organizations and to suggest how government programs can be redesigned to recognize and reward these actions. People's Science organizations in India have been founded by engineers, doctors, activists and academics. These groups are implementing appropriate technologies by networking between scientists and rural communities. Through multi-sited ethnographies, this research compares the work of three organizations-- two People's Science groups and one government agency-- that are developing water projects for rural households in the state of Maharashtra. The two People's Science projects-- the Baliraja Dam and the Naigaon Village Project-- have been identified as model examples of participatory development and watershed management by Indian environmental activists. The third case chronicles the Krishna Koyna Irrigation Scheme, a regional government project under construction. This research compares these three cases to draw correlations between organizational attributes, the level of community participation and the outcome of the water project. Through these comparisons, the research examines if participation strategies applied at a local level by People's Science organizations can be feasibly scaled up to regional government planning. The project also inquires about the personal and professional motivations cited by staff for involving or excluding input from local residents. To answer these questions, a range of qualitative methods are used, including ethnography, focus groups, in-depth interviews, concept mapping, archival research and video documentation. After the three case studies are developed, focus groups will be convened to bring together members from all three organizations to initiate a dialogue about participatory development. The goal of these meetings is to describe the institutional dynamics that make it possible to promote democracy and accountability in technical development. The results from these sessions will be used to design interactive workshops and demonstration projects that bring together government staff and non- governmental organizations to encourage capacity building and knowledge sharing efforts. While this dissertation research focuses on case studies from the same region and within the water sector, the conceptual model used to bring together government officials and community members to discuss the dynamics of public participation in technology design can be applied to other regions and resource sectors, like energy and agriculture.