Doctoral Dissertation Research: Globalization Grounded: Land disputes and agrarian reform in Guatemala

危地马拉目前面临一个关键时刻。在一场导致20万平民死胡同的内战之后，人们谨慎乐观地认为，军方和游击队之间达成的和平协议将解决这个国家遗留下来的贫困和暴力问题。但老问题很快又出现了。目前，危地马拉有1000多起土地纠纷-其中许多是暴力的。这项研究探讨了在民主化和发展的背景下危地马拉农民抵抗的范围和结果。利用深度访谈、参与者观察和档案调查等一系列定性研究方法，该项目试图更好地了解土地改革是否以及如何促进农村主体纳入民主政体。此外，随着商业农业的日益突出和信息作为推动经济增长的商品的中心地位的日益增强，它还探讨了随着20世纪的开始，农民动员土地改革是否已经过时。该项目将通过将有关社会运动、民主过渡和发展的社会学文献联系起来，为社会学知识做出贡献。关键的紧张局势包括巴林顿·摩尔提出的难题：民主化往往以农民抗议活动的“消失”为前提。相反，本文追求的是相反的假设：农民抗议实际上促进了民主化。在发展文学社会学中，当有关全球化的讨论出现时，也会出现类似的悖论。大多数学者都同意，随着全球化进程的加剧，农村主体日益被边缘化。这个项目探讨了农民可以利用全球化创造的一些能量，以保持农民身份的方式参与全球经济的可能性。该项目的更广泛影响是，它将在国家和国际范围内促进一体化程度较低的农村行为者和城市研究人员之间的合作。此外，它将有助于关于冲突后时代和国家治理的政策讨论。最后，它将阐明与拉丁美洲地区相关的国家重建问题，或许还包括世界其他地区。

Guatemala currently faces a critical juncture. After a civil war that left 200,000 civilians dead-ended, there was guarded optimism that the peace accords reached between the military and the guerrillas would address this country's legacy of poverty and violence. But old problems soon re-emerged. Currently, there are over 1,000 land disputes in Guatemala - many of them violent. This study explores the spectrum and outcomes of peasant resistance in Guatemala in the context of democratization and development. Utilizing a range of qualitative research methods including in-depth interviews, participant observation and archival investigation, this project seeks to better understand if and how land reform can facilitate the inclusion of rural subjects into the democratic polity. Further, it explores whether peasant mobilization for land reform is obsolete as the twentieth century begins, with the increasing prominence of commercial agriculture and the growing centrality of information as the commodity that drives economic growth. This project will contribute to sociological knowledge by bridging the sociological literature on social movements, democratic transitions and development. Key tensions include the conundrum posed by Barrington Moore: that democratization is often premised on the "disappearance" of peasant protest. On the contrary, this dissertation pursues the converse hypothesis: that peasant protest actually facilitates democratization. In the sociology of development literature, a similar paradox presents itself when discussions of globalization arise. Most scholars agree that rural subjects are increasingly marginalized as globalization processes intensify. This project explores the possibility that peasants can harness some of the energy created by globalization and engage in the global economy in ways that preserve a peasant identity. The broader impact of this project is the collaboration it will facilitate between less-integrated rural actors and urban researchers on both a national and international scale. Further, it will contribute to policy discussions about governance in post-conflict eras and states. Finally, it will shed light on questions of state reconstruction relevant to the Latin American region and perhaps other parts of the world.