DDIG: Public Land and the American Political Imagination: An Ethnographic Study of Governance and Democracy in the United States

美国西部山区间土地管理局管理的公共土地使用冲突威胁到公共土地上脆弱生态系统的健康以及邻近农村社区的社会和经济福祉。这些冲突的背后是对景观的不同看法，以及对“公众”含义的不同理解。这项由社会文化人类学专业的学生进行的研究对犹他州南部的大楼梯-埃斯卡兰特国家纪念碑的冲突政治进行了详细的民族志分析，自1996年纪念碑创建以来，该遗址的冲突一直激烈和持续。这项研究将结合参与者观察、正式和非正式访谈、档案研究和文件分析，研究从社区内部到地方、州和国家层面的冲突的政治动态。该项目将随着时间的推移分析冲突，以阐明公民与美国联邦、多层次、民主政府的联系过程，以及指导这一过程的政治理想。更广泛的影响：这项研究对那些寻求了解和改善美国自然资源冲突的人具有实际意义。增进对大楼梯-埃斯卡兰特国家纪念碑管理冲突的政治动态的了解可用于帮助缓解公共土地使用方面的冲突，并为公共土地管理政策提供信息。对于那些寻求更好地了解美国政治理想和美国政治制度的人来说，这项研究也具有理论意义，以便确定民主变革的根源，分析随着政府角色缩小而在社会上发生的制度调整，并评估关于向其他国家大规模输出这一制度的假设。这项研究还将有助于人类学博士生的教育。

Conflict over the use of public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management in the American Intermountain West threaten both the health of fragile ecosystems on public lands and the social and economic well-being of adjacent rural communities. These conflicts are underlain by different perceptions of the landscape as well as by different understandings of the meaning of "public." This research by a student in Sociocultural Anthropology provides a detailed ethnographic analysis of the politics of the conflict over the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, a site where conflict has been intense and persistent since the creation of the Monument in 1996. The study will examine the political dynamics of the conflict from the intra-community to the local, state, and national levels using a combination of participant observation, formal and informal interviews, archival research, and document analysis. The project will analyze the conflict over time in order to illuminate the process by which citizens relate to the federal, multi-level, democratic government of the United States and the political ideals that inform this process. Broader Impacts: This study has practical significance for those seeking to understand and ameliorate natural resource conflicts in the United States. An improved understanding of the political dynamics of the conflict over the management of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument can be used to help mitigate conflicts over the use of public land and to inform public land management policy. The study also has theoretical significance for those seeking a better understanding of American political ideals and the American political system in order to identify loci of democratic change, to analyze the institutional realignment that is occurring in society as the role of government narrows, and to evaluate assumptions about the wholesale export of this system to other countries. The study will also contribute to the education of a doctoral student in Anthropology.