Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Absentee Ownership and Common Property Resource Management: The Case of Herd Management in Rural Mongolia

研究生丹尼尔墨菲，在彼得·利特尔博士的监督下，将在蒙古农村进行研究，以研究缺席的土地所有权对当地机构管理公共资源的能力的影响。蒙古畜牧业经济中越来越多的富有的、面向市场的缺席业主为研究这些问题提供了一个很好的案例。在蒙古东部牧区为期12个月的民族志研究中，研究人员将研究缺席的土地所有权是否削弱了当地资源管理机构有效管理资源使用的能力。研究人员假设：（H1）由于市场导向的生产战略在缺席的牧场主决策中占首要地位，缺席的牧场主的牛群管理和资源使用做法与其他资源使用者所使用的牛群管理和资源使用做法不同，（H2）缺席的牧场主的牛群管理和资源使用做法更有可能违反当地的资源使用规范，因此是资源冲突的主要原因，以及（H3）与其他资源使用者的做法相比，缺席的牧场主的牛群管理和资源使用做法不太容易受到当地资源管理机构的强制执行和制裁。研究人员将通过几种民族志方法收集一系列定量和定性数据来验证这些假设，这些方法包括参与者观察，家庭调查，访谈和冲突案例研究。这项研究将增加越来越多的详细的人类学和社会科学研究，研究更广泛的系统性变化如何影响当地的生产方式，资源使用，以及人类对环境的参与。这项研究的结果还将填补人类学文献中关于畜牧业的重大空白，因为很少有研究人员将缺席的牧场主参与畜牧业经济作为研究的中心重点。除了学术意义外，这项研究还具有更广泛的政策含义。提高对共同财产制度中的资源使用政治以及国家、市场和资源使用者之间关系的认识至关重要，这有助于制定既灵活又足够强大的资源管理模式，以执行可持续的资源使用。这一研究也将有助于社会科学家的教育。

Graduate student Daniel Murphy, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Little, will undertake research in rural Mongolia in order to examine the effect of absentee herd-ownership on the ability of local institutions to manage communal resources. The growing numbers of wealthy, market-oriented absentee herd-owners in the pastoral economy of Mongolia provides an excellent case in which to examine these issues. During 12 months of ethnographic research in a pastoral district of eastern Mongolia, the researcher will examine whether or not absentee herd-ownership weakens the ability of local resource management institutions to effectively regulate resource use. The researcher hypothesizes that: (H1) Absentee herd-owners' herd management and resource use practices are different from those utilized by other resource users due to the primacy of market-oriented production strategies in absentee herd-owner decision-making, (H2) Absentee herd-owners' herd management and resource use practices are more likely to contravene local norms of resource use and consequently are a primary cause of resource conflict, and (H3) Absentee herd-owners' herd management and resource use practices are less susceptible to enforcement and sanctioning by local resource management institutions than the practices of other resource users. The researcher will test these hypotheses by collecting a range of quantitative and qualitative data through several ethnographic methodologies, including participant observation, household surveys, interviewing, and case studies of conflict.This study will add to a growing body of detailed anthropological and social science research on the ways in which broader systematic changes affect local modes of production, resource use, and human engagement with the environment. The results of the study will also fill significant gaps in the anthropological literature on pastoralism, as few researchers have made the involvement in the pastoral economy by absentee herd-owners a central focus of study. In addition to its scholarly significance, this research also has broader policy implications. Improved knowledge on the politics of resource use in common property systems and the relationships between the state, the market and resource users is critical in order to facilitate the development of resource management models that are both flexible and powerful enough to enforce sustainable resource use. This research also will contribute to the education of a social scientist.