Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reconstructing Guatemala's Ownership Society

土地管理项目建立国家机构，负责通过系统的土地测绘、产权登记和登记，对作为财产的土地进行公共管理，目标是建立正规、透明的土地市场。 虽然这些似乎只是技术性的任务，但从背景来看，LAPs往往成为争夺政治和经济身份的场所。 这个博士论文研究改进项目将研究战后危地马拉的土地管理项目在Franja Transmarte del Norte，一个“边境”地区的农业殖民化开始于1950年代。 这一地区复杂的殖民化和反叛乱暴力的历史及其大多数土著玛雅Q'eqchi'人口增加了执行统一法律的困难。 博士生将寻求以下问题的答案：地籍调查和危地马拉内战后国家的重建是如何相互构成的？ 个人财产公民身份的国家领土过程与新兴的土著自治之间的关系是什么？ 博士生将探讨领土愿景映射到种族身份的程度，以及Q'eqchi'必须如何表达与有产公民身份有关的领土身份。 研究人员还将试图确定土地管理项目是否减少了土地冲突。 她将使用一个政治生态学框架，探讨财产制度的生产，对地籍调查在生产国家身份的作用，以及领土，土著自治和公民身份之间的关系的关键理论辩论的物质成果。 她将采用混合方法，包括对土地保有权调查数据进行回归分析，审查档案和灰色文献，以及对农村、玛雅Q'eqchi'社区协会和国际发展机构进行参与性观察。 这一对危地马拉土地管理项目的广泛研究将考虑领土随时间和规模的动态，这一研究项目使用定性和定量方法，以加强对土地管理发展项目影响的基本了解。 在以前的研究中采用的不同方法导致了根本不同的结论，这些项目的影响，但该项目的混合方法的研究方法应该阐明这些差异的来源，它应该加强基础知识，明确纳入地理空间因素的分析。在理论文献中，国家测绘项目和反测绘之间的地理文献存在分歧。 这种分裂意味着国家项目往往被描绘成最终的历史时刻，而反映射的工作往往无法解决国家和发展进程对这些运动的影响。 通过在同一研究中解决状态映射和反映射问题，该项目将有助于理解这些过程产生于富有成效的辩证张力。 该项目还将协助玛雅Q'eqchi'社区获得政府对其土地权的承认。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。 该项目由国际科学与工程办公室的地理和区域科学计划以及美洲计划共同支持。

Land administration projects (LAPs) build state institutions that are charged with the public administration of land as property via the systematic mapping, titling, and registering of land with the goal of creating formalized, transparent land markets. Although these may seem to be only technical tasks, when taken in context, LAPs often become sites of struggle for political and economic identities. This Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement project will examine post-war Guatemala's land administration project in the Franja Transversal del Norte, a "frontier" region sited for agricultural colonization beginning in the 1950s. This region's complicated history of repeated colonization and counterinsurgency violence and its majority indigenous Maya Q'eqchi' population exemplify the difficulties in implementing a uniform LAP. The doctoral candidate will seek answers to the following questions: How are the cadastral survey and the reconstruction of the Guatemalan state after the civil war mutually constituted? What is the relationship between the state territorial process of individualized propertied citizenship and emergent indigenous autonomy? The doctoral candidate will explore the degree to which territorial visions map onto ethnic identities and how the Q'eqchi' must articulate a territorial identity in relation to propertied citizenship. The researcher also will attempt to determine whether the land administration project has decreased land conflicts. She will use a political ecology framework to explore material outcomes of the production of property regimes, key theoretical debates on the role of cadastral surveys in producing state identities, and the relationship between territoriality, indigenous autonomy, and citizenship. She will employ a mixed-methods approach, including regression analysis of land tenure survey data, review of archival and grey literature, and participant observation of rural villages, a Maya Q'eqchi' community association and international development agencies. This extensive study of the land administration project in Guatemala will consider the dynamics of territorialities over time and scales.This research project use both qualitative and quantitative methods to enhance basic understanding of the effects of land administration development projects. Different methods employed in prior studies have led to radically different conclusions regarding the effects of these projects, but this project's mixed-methods research approach should shed light on the sources of these differences, and it should strengthen fundamental knowledge by explicitly incorporating geospatial factors into analysis. In the theoretical literature, there is a schism in the geographical literature between state mapping projects and counter-mapping. This schism means that state projects are often portrayed as finalized, historical moments and that works on counter-mapping often fail to address the influence of state and development processes on those movements. By addressing state mapping and counter-mapping in the same research, this project will contribute to understanding these processes as generated out of productive, dialectical tension. This project will also assist Maya Q'eqchi' communities in attaining government recognition for their land rights. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career. This project is jointly supported by the Geography and Regional Science Program and the Americas Program of the Office of International Science and Engineering.