Collaborative Research: Colonialism and Its Legacies: A Comprehensive Historical Dataset

摘要“合作研究：殖民主义及其遗产：一个全面的历史数据集”（NSF提案0648292和0647921）主要研究者--约翰·戈林和詹姆斯·马奥尼--人们普遍认为，殖民地的经历深刻地塑造了现代。 然而，虽然人们普遍认为“殖民主义很重要”，但这种创伤性干预的长期影响却不那么清楚。 关于殖民主义的学术和流行观点的毒性与当前研究的无结论性相匹配。 核心困难可以简单地说：学者们缺乏可靠的全球数据集来测试假设。 作为解决这些问题的办法，本项目将开发一个全面的历史数据集，侧重于自15世纪以来的英欧和日本海外殖民主义。 主要研究人员将以国家年或国家十年为分析单位，对从1400年到沿着的所有案例进行编码，并从与殖民地经历以及政治、社会和经济发展计划相关的各个方面进行分析。 为了监督数据收集过程，该项目将利用一个区域专家小组的各种专门知识：Paul Barclay、Neil Englehart、John Gerring、Charles Kurzman、James Mahoney和Nicolas货车de Walle。 在考虑这一项目的潜在影响时，必须认识到，殖民占领是治理和发展方面的一次真正全球规模的巨大试验。 从这个角度看，它可以提供具有当代意义的有益经验。 因此，学者们可能会将那些把教育和基础设施发展作为占领国优先事项的殖民地与那些忽视这些因素的殖民地进行比较。 这些发展政策有多成功？ 遇到了什么样的障碍？ 如果这些政策得到成功实施，它们是否产生了持久的影响？ 更一般地说，这个数据集有望刺激不同领域的学者对殖民主义的原因和影响的研究，配备了一套不同的方法，横跨社会科学。 完成的研究将使学者，政策制定者和知情的公众更好地了解这一过去的当代遗产-包括积极和消极的方面。 了解这一遗产可能会为更现实地评估决策者目前能够实现的目标开辟道路。

Abstract"Collaborative Research: Colonialism and Its Legacies: A Comprehensive Historical Dataset"(NSF Proposals 0648292 and 0647921)Principal Investigators-- John Gerring and James Mahoney --It has become commonplace to observe that the colonial experience shaped the modern era in profound ways. Yet, while there is general agreement that "colonialism mattered," the long-term effects of this traumatic intervention are less clear. The virulence of scholarly and popular opinions about colonialism is matched by the inconclusiveness of the current research. The core difficulty can be stated succinctly: scholars lack a reliable, global dataset for testing hypotheses. As a remedy for these problems, this project will develop a comprehensive historical dataset focused on Anglo-European and Japanese overseas colonialism since the fifteenth century. Using the country-year or country-decade as the unit of analysis, the principal investigators will code all cases from 1400 to the present along a variety of dimensions related to the colonial experience and the project of political, social, and economic development. To supervise the data-gathering process, this project will utilize the diverse expertise of a panel of regional experts: Paul Barclay, Neil Englehart, John Gerring, Charles Kurzman, James Mahoney, and Nicolas van de Walle. In contemplating the potential impact of this project it is important to recognize that colonial occupation constituted a vast experiment -- on a truly global scale -- in governance and development. So viewed, it may provide useful lessons with contemporary relevance. Thus, scholars might compare colonies where the development of education and infrastructure constituted a priority for the occupying power with colonies where these factors were neglected. How successful were these developmental policies? What sorts of obstacles were encountered? To the extent that these policies were implemented successfully, did they have enduring effects? More generally, this dataset promises to stimulate research concerning the causes and effects of colonialism by scholars in diverse fields, equipped with a diverse set of methods, across the social sciences. The completed research will allow scholars, policymakers, and the informed public to better understand the contemporary legacies of this past -- including both the positive and negative aspects. Understanding this legacy may open the way for a more realistic assessment of what is within policymakers' power to achieve at the present time.