Dissertation Research: History, Cultural Models, and Property Rights in the Emergence of Groundwater Irrigation: The Upper Valley of Cochabamba, Bolivia

这篇文化人类学的论文研究项目将研究玻利维亚高原科恰班巴山谷的农民最近采用地下水灌溉时新形式产权的出现。从历史上看，农民使用水库中储存的河流和溪流的水来灌溉田地，但最近他们发展了使用井水的能力。一开始研究的可比系统似乎是无结构和混乱的，但经过分析，似乎是创新、适应、学习和创业技能的产物。学生将分析农民持有的产权文化模式，以及其他形式产权的交易成本，研究管理地下水使用的机构的历史，使用GIS和空间分析来确定地点和空间系统，分析安第斯当地的产权如何适应新的经济战略。该学生的项目将通过扩大“新制度经济学”方法，包括文化模型、符号和意义，并将促进我们对高海拔灌溉系统的理解，以及我们对世界上这一重要地区的认识，做出重大贡献。此外，该项目有助于培养一名年轻的社会科学家。

This dissertation research project in cultural anthropology will examine the emergence of new forms of property rights in the recent adoption of groundwater irrigation by farmers in the Cochabamba valley of highland Bolivia. Historically farmers had used water from descending rivers and streams stored in reservoirs to irrigate their fields, but in recent times they developed the capacity to use well water. Comparable systems that have been studied at first have appeared unstructured and chaotic, but upon analysis have appeared to be products of innovation, adaptation, learning and entrepreneurial skill. The student will analyze the cultural models of property rights held by farmers as well as the transaction costs of alternative forms of property rights, study the history of institutions governing groundwater usage and use GIS and spatial analysis to identify locations and spatial systems, to analyze how local Andean property rights have adapted to a new economic strategy. The student's project will make a significant contribution by widening the "New Institutional Economics" approach to include cultural models, symbols and meaning, and will advance our understanding of high altitude irrigation systems, as well as our knowledge of this important region of the world. In addition the project contributes to the training of a young social scientist.