Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Social Dimensions of Public Policy: The Case of Costa Rica

研究生杰里米·雷纳在大卫·哈维教授的指导下，将研究当代哥斯达黎加对电信私有化的反对。2000年，史无前例的抗议和罢工浪潮阻止了哥斯达黎加电力研究所(ICE)部分私有化和结束其在电信领域的垄断的尝试。今天，在与美国的中美洲自由贸易协定(CAFTA)的争议背景下，电信私有化再次成为社会运动活动激增的核心，该协定规定开放哥斯达黎加的电信市场。研究人员将利用参与者观察和访谈的方法，对有组织地反对电信私有化进行民族志研究。将与四类主要的私有化反对者的代表进行访谈：学生、城乡社区活动家和ICE员工，以揭示持续反对私有化的各种原因和动机。关于这一运动产生的政治、经济和历史背景的信息，将采用其他来源。对私有化倡导者的采访将为比较评估反对者的主张提供基础，而文献资料来源将提供关于ICE的经济表现、其在哥斯达黎加公共文化中的地位以及关键立法辩论的内容的信息。这项研究之所以重要，是因为哥斯达黎加对电信私有化的高度争论使这项研究特别适合于解决私有化的更广泛的政治和文化层面。它具有重大的政策影响，因为它将增加对拉丁美洲普遍反对私有化背后原因的了解，并将从哥斯达黎加漫长的辩论过程中为正在进行的关于提供通信机会的全球政策审议提供更多的视角。这项研究也将为社会科学家的教育做出重要贡献。

Graduate student Jeremy Rayner, supervised by Professor David Harvey, will study the opposition to telecommunications privatization in contemporary Costa Rica. In 2000, an unprecedented wave of protests and strikes stopped an attempt to partially privatize the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) and end its monopolies in telecommunications. Today, telecommunications privatization is again central to an upsurge in social movement activity in the context of controversy over the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the United States, which stipulates the opening of Costa Rica's telecommunications markets. The researcher will conduct an ethnographic study of the organized opposition to telecommunications privatization, utilizing participant observation and interviews. Interviews will be conducted with representatives of four prominent categories of privatization opponents: students, urban and rural community activists, and ICE employees, in order to uncover the varied reasons and motives driving sustained opposition to privatization. Additional sources will be employed for information concerning the political, economic and historical context in which this movement has arisen. Interviews with privatization advocates will provide a basis for comparative evaluation of opponents' claims, while documentary sources will provide information on the economic performance of the ICE, its representation in Costa Rican public culture over time, and the content of key legislative debates.This research is important because the high degree of contention over telecommunications privatization in Costa Rica makes this study particularly well placed to address privatization's broader political and cultural dimensions. It has significant policy implications because it will add to understanding of the reasons behind widespread opposition to privatization in Latin America, and because it will contribute additional perspectives from a long process of debate in Costa Rica to the ongoing global policy deliberation over the provision of access to communications. This research will also make an important contribution to the education of a social scientist.