Dissertation Research: Transnational Organizing, Media and Technology, and Democratic Practices in Social Movements: The Case of the Sans-Papiers in France

研究生Ana Yu C.Hsu将在Dolores B.Koenig博士的指导下，对法国的无证移民社会运动及其对媒体和数字技术的使用进行研究。初步研究表明，与移民本身相比，运动支持者更多地获得媒体和技术。因此，她假设，越来越多地使用这种技术可能会破坏民主参与，并加剧移民与他们的法国和外国支持者之间的权力失衡，这些支持者包括学者、活动家、艺术家和工会组织者。三个核心问题指导着这项研究：1)跨国激进主义如何影响移民及其支持者使用媒体和技术的方式？2)这种动态对民主代表有什么影响？3)参与者如何理解内部做法，以及他们在多大程度上将这些做法解释为民主和合法？研究人员将在为期一年的时间里对法国三个这样的组织进行参与者观察。她将出席会议并收集关于媒体和技术使用以及组织内部和组织之间的通信结构和网络的数据。此外，她将收集和分析组织文件，查阅相关档案材料，并进行广泛的非正式和半结构化访谈。这项研究项目之所以重要，是因为它扩展了之前社会科学关于被普遍称为“数字鸿沟”的发现，以解决获得技术和技术专长的不平等对移民和其他弱势群体的民主公民身份和政治参与的有害影响。这项研究还将对社会科学家的教育做出重大贡献。

Graduate student Ana Yu C. Hsu, supervised by Dr. Dolores B. Koenig, will undertake research on the sans-papiers (undocumented immigrants) social movement in France and their use of media and digital technology. Preliminary research has shown that movement supporters have more access to media and technology than do the immigrants themselves. Therefore, she hypothesizes that the increasing use of such technology may undermine democratic participation and accentuate power imbalances between the immigrants and their French and foreign supporters, who include scholars, activists, artists, and union organizers. Three central questions guide the research: 1) How does transnational activism shape the ways in which media and technology are used by the immigrants and their supporters? 2) What are the effects of this dynamic on democratic representation? 3) How do participants understand internal practices and to what extent do they interpret them as democratic and legitimate? The researcher will undertake participant observation in three French such organizations over a period of one year. She will attend meetings and collect data on media and technology use, as well as communication structures and networks within and between organizations. In addition, she will collect and analyze organizational documents, consult relevant archival materials, and conduct extensive informal and semi-structured interviews.This research project is important because it extends previous social science findings about what has been popularly termed the "digital divide" to address the detrimental effects of inequalities of access to technology and technological expertise on democratic citizenship and political participation by immigrants and other disadvantaged groups. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.