Social welfare and gold mining: A comparative pilot study in Suriname and French Guiana

社会福利制度的支助如何影响一个家庭对自然资源的经济依赖，这一问题在许多社会情况下都令人感兴趣。一名文化人类学家进行的这项试点研究将询问苏里南和法属圭亚那的森林人民如何在获得国家社会福利制度的情况下参与小规模的金矿开采。先前的研究表明，该地区的金矿开采吸引了大量穷人，他们几乎没有生存选择，以及少数相对富裕的人，他们可以通过投资采矿设备获得收入。该研究预测，获得社会福利与参与金矿开采之间呈u型关系，穷人获得社会福利的机会最少，而富人最有可能从事金矿开采。这一假设将在文化和环境相似但社会福利制度不同的两个相邻国家进行检验。研究人员将研究苏里南东部和法属圭亚那西部的三个Maroon村庄，这些村庄获得公共服务的机会各不相同。将对每个村庄的50户家庭进行社会经济调查访谈，将在边界两侧记录人种学访谈和观察结果，并将从政府办公室和非政府组织获得统计信息。两名美国研究生将在实地工作中接受培训，并将对比较主题进行自己的研究。除了有助于培养社会科学方面的学生，增进我们对获得福利与工作之间关系的理解外，该项目还将使我们了解社会福利政策、社会经济发展和森林资源利用与保护之间的关系。

The question of how support from social welfare systems affects a household's economic reliance on natural resources is of interest in many social contexts. This pilot research by a cultural anthropologist will ask how forest peoples in Suriname and French Guiana participate in small-scale gold mining given access to national social welfare systems. Previous research suggests that gold mining in this area attracts large numbers of poor people, who have few subsistence alternatives, and a small number of relatively well off people, who can earn revenues by investing in mining equipment. The research predicts a U-shaped relation between access to social welfare and participation in gold mining, with poor people with the least access to welfare and rich people being the most likely to engage in mining. This hypothesis will be tested in two adjacent countries that are culturally and environmentally similar but differ in their systems of social welfare. The researchers will study three Maroon villages in Eastern Suriname and Western French Guiana, varying in their access to public services. Socioeconomic survey interviews will be carried out with fifty households in each village, ethnographic interviews and observations will be recorded at both sides of the border, and statistical information will be obtained from government offices and non-governmental organizations. Two U.S. graduate students will be trained in the fieldwork and will conduct their own research on comparative topics. Aside from contributing to the training of students in social science and advancing our understanding of the relation between access to welfare and work, the project will inform us about the relation between social welfare policy, socioeconomic development, and forest resource use and conservation.