Doctoral Dissertation Research: Property Rights and Social Mobilization Along an Amazonian Highway

巴西政府计划铺设Santarem-Cuiaba高速公路（BR 163），这是唯一一条从南到北穿越巴西亚马逊的公路。 这一决定重新引发了该地区对财产权的争夺，该地区以其模糊的土地保有制度和长期的土地和资源暴力冲突而闻名。 铺设这条道路的动力是为了方便将巴西南部的大豆收成运往亚马逊河出口。 作为对承诺的铺路计划的回应，工业化的大豆种植者已经进入这一地区，现在正在与小农、商业伐木者和牧场主争夺公路附近最好的土地。 巴西政府试图平息土地冲突，促进这一“前沿”地区道路沿着的可持续发展，通过土地改革重新划定土地界线，创建一个新的保护和资源开采区，并测量农村土地边界。 然而，围绕这条公路沿着产权的冲突依然存在。 这个博士论文研究项目将调查这些努力，以实行正式的土地保有制度与主张土地和界定土地上的财产的做法相互作用的方式。 通过政策分析、档案研究、参与性绘图和人种学，博士生将研究参与土地冲突的多个利益集团的行为者的观点，以了解这些不同的行为者如何理解财产权，并试图动员起来并使他们对土地的主张合法化。关于亚马逊地区道路建设的辩论往往集中在道路与森林砍伐之间的关系上，呼吁改善治理，以减轻道路建设对环境的影响。 这项研究努力扩大这一讨论，以解决复杂的社会和政治问题，可以掩盖一个狭窄的重点道路建设的环境影响。 通过探讨正式法律与具有不同利益、权力关系和区域管辖权的多个行为体的行动相互交织而形成的复杂治理体系，预计本研究的结果将表明，亚马逊边境不仅仅是一个无法无天的地方，其问题可以通过更好的立法和监测来解决。通过探索复杂的治理系统及其工作方式，本研究将有助于对正式国家结构与非正式经济，社会和政治实践之间的关系进行辩论。 该项目的结果还将有助于解释为什么解决该区域土地保有权问题的努力一再失败，并将阐明可能开始减轻土地冲突的不均衡影响的措施类型。 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。

The Brazilian government plans to pave the Santarem-Cuiaba highway (BR 163), the only road that traverses the Brazilian Amazon from south to north. This decision has reignited competition for property rights in a region known for its ambiguous land-tenure system and long history of violent conflict over land and resources. The impetus to pave the road is to facilitate the transport of soy harvests from the south of Brazil to the Amazon River for export. In response to the promised paving initiatives, industrial soy farmers have moved into this region and are now competing with smallholders, commercial loggers, and ranchers for the best land near the road. The Brazilian government has attempted to quell land conflict and facilitate sustainable development along the road in this "frontier" region by redrawing property lines through land reform, creating a new mosaic of conservation and resource extraction areas, and surveying rural property boundaries. Conflict over property rights along the road persists, however. This doctoral dissertation research project will investigate the ways that these efforts to impose a formal land-tenure system interact with practices of claiming land and defining property on the ground. Through policy analysis, archival research, participatory mapping and ethnography, the doctoral candidate will examine the perspectives of actors from multiple interest groups involved in land conflict in order to understand how these different actors understand property rights and attempt to mobilize for and legitimize their claims to land.Debates about road building in the Amazon have tended to focus on the relationship between roads and deforestation, calling for improved governance in order to ameliorate the environmental effects of road building. This research endeavors to broaden this discussion to address the complex social and political issues that can be obscured by a narrow focus on road building's environmental effects. By exploring the complex system of governance that emerges through the intersection of formal law and actions of multiple actors with different interests, power relationships and regional imaginaries, the findings of this research are expected to demonstrate that the Amazon frontier is not simply a lawless place whose issues can be resolved through better legislation and monitoring. By exploring complex systems of governance in place and how they work, this study will contribute to debates about the relationship between formal state structures and informal economic, social, and political practices. The project's results also will help to explain why efforts to address land-tenure issues in the region repeatedly fail, and they will shed light on the types of measures that might begin to alleviate the uneven effects of land conflict. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.