Doctoral Dissertation Research: Fission and Fusion: Amerindian Environmental Politics and Resource Justice in Guyana

本博士论文研究项目将利用政治生态学框架来调查圭亚那国内种族冲突，工业和保护全球化以及美洲印第安人政治分化之间的关系。 新的采矿、木材和保护发展压力是美洲印第安人组织采取多重法律的和政治行动的基础。 然而，与统一的联邦和基于种族的政治相反，圭亚那的资源冲突迄今为止并没有促进美洲印第安人之间的政治团结。 这场运动的丰富多样性引发了对人类和环境变化辩论中重要元问题的重新思考：土地和种族之间的关系是什么？ 环境不确定性的历史如何影响社会运动的模式？ 环境变迁与限制族群话语的政治空间有何关联？ 发展和保护的做法是否对土著社区更加负责？ 自由化以来不同社区在经济安全和资源获取方面的历史是影响政治活动和组织的主要变量，为了实现这一想法，将在首都乔治敦和内地的两个美洲印第安人地区进行实地工作。 本研究将采用质性研究方法，包括档案文献、访谈、参与观察、法律的案例分析等。 研究结果将阐明复杂的社区协会，相交的圭亚那美洲印第安人运动内的种族边界的轮廓，也许反映了更重要的联盟的基础上，生态变化和经济安全的特定历史。 这篇博士论文的研究将涉及各种文献，包括政治生态学研究，国际发展问责制，加勒比地区的政治经济学，以及土著人民和其他边缘化群体的社会运动。 然而，这项研究与那些用同质种族政治来瓦解环境危机的案例和研究最有区别。 这项研究将揭示一些一般性的限制和机会的替代土著政治战略和方法的生存，潜在的启发不寻常的策略，从事发展保护的关系。 这也将是一个具有挑战性的话语占主导地位的资源管理机构，国际非政府组织和发展机构。 因此，对圭亚那美洲印第安人政治背景的研究也将为其他国家经历类似生态，社会和经济边缘化的其他边缘群体提供信息。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。

This doctoral dissertation research project will utilize a political ecology framework to investigate the relationship between domestic racial conflicts, industrial and conservation globalization, and Amerindian political differentiation in Guyana. New mining, timber, and conservation development pressures are the basis for multiple legal and political actions of Amerindian organizations. In contrast to unified federations and ethnic based politics, however, the panoply of resource conflicts in Guyana has not catalyzed political unity among Amerindians thus far. The richness in this movement's diversification provokes a reconsideration of important meta-questions in debates of human and environmental change: What is the relationship between land and ethnicity? How do histories of environmental uncertainty affect the modes of social movements? What is the connection between environmental changes and political space that restricts ethnic discourses? Has the practice of development and conservation become more accountable to indigenous communities? In pursuit of the idea that different community histories of economic security and resource access since liberalization are the primary variables affecting political activity and organization, fieldwork will be conducted in the capital of Georgetown and two Amerindian regions in the interior. A blend of qualitative research methods drawing on archival documents, interviews, participant observation, and legal case analysis will be employed. The research findings will illuminate complex community associations that intersect contours of ethnic boundaries within the Amerindian movement of Guyana, perhaps reflecting more critical alliances based on specific histories of ecological change and economic security. This doctoral dissertation research will engage a variety of literature, including studies in political ecology, accountability in international development, the political economy of the Caribbean, and social movements of indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups. This research most distinguishes itself, however, from those cases and studies that collapse environmental crises with homogeneous ethnic politics. The research will reveal some general constraints and opportunities of alternative indigenous political strategies and approaches to survival, potentially illuminating unusual tactics for engaging the development-conservation nexus. It will also be a challenging discourse to dominant resource management agencies, international NGOs, and development institutions. As such, this research on the context of Amerindian politics in Guyana will also inform other marginal groups experiencing similar ecological, social, and economic marginalization in other countries. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.