Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Struggle for Water Rights in a Contested Commons: Changing Institutional Landscape in Upper Mustang, Nepal

水对于乡村社会来说，不仅是一种实用性的储备，而且是一种象征性的资源，是构建社会关系的媒介。灌溉管理规范是缺水地区社区系统的支柱。灌溉系统虽然反映了一个社会的现有权力结构，但也通过复制或改变社会关系来影响这些结构。除了界定获取，灌溉系统中的水权还构成社会关系。因此，水权不断受到争议和谈判。本论文的研究项目由一个文化人类学的学生从格鲁吉亚大学探讨如何争取水权修改农业资源管理的制度景观在寒冷，干旱地区的木斯塘，尼泊尔。结合民族志，调查，比较和历史的方法，学生将研究在定居点内和定居点之间的水权斗争的动态。这项研究将探讨如何界定水权;如何对这种定义提出质疑;以及这种质疑如何影响体制，检验将权利与其他经济和社会资源联系起来的假设。更广泛的影响：除了促进博士生的教育外，这项研究还将产生有助于解决水权实际问题的知识。这些知识将有助于制定水政策、立法、农村发展倡议和解决冲突。

Water for rural societies is not only a utilitarian reserve but also a symbolic resource and a medium through which social relations are constructed. The norms for irrigation management form the backbone of community systems in water- scarce regions. Irrigations systems, while reflecting the existing power structures of a society, also influence these structures by reproducing or transforming societal relationships. In addition to defining access, water rights in an irrigation system constitute societal relations. Consequently, water rights are constantly contested and negotiated. This dissertation research project by a cultural anthropology student from the University of Georgia explores how the struggle for water rights modifies the institutional landscape of agricultural resource management in a cold, arid region of upper Mustang, Nepal. Combining ethnographic, survey, comparative and historical approaches, the student will study the dynamics of struggle over water rights both within and between settlements. The study will explore how water rights are defined; how such definitions are contested; and how such contestations influence institutions, testing hypotheses relating rights to other economic and social resources. Broader impacts: in addition to furthering the education of a doctoral student, the research will produce knowledge to help resolve practical issues of water rights. This knowledge will be of interest for developing water policies, legislation, rural development initiatives, and conflict resolution.