Doctoral Dissertation Research: Citizenship and Property in Post-Conflict Angola

芝加哥大学博士生克劳迪娅·加斯特罗将在让·科马罗夫博士的指导下，研究财产关系在新形式公民身份出现中的作用。这项研究是在世界各地城市土地纠纷不断增加的情况下进行的。这在全球南方的城市尤为严重，在这些城市，快速城市化伴随着日益严重的社会经济不平等。研究人员将跟踪城市居民对当代政策干预的反应，以了解公民身份和主权的界限是如何通过城市环境和所有权概念的重建而重新划分的。研究人员将在安哥拉的罗安达进行为期12个月的实地考察，自安哥拉内战（1975-2002年）结束以来，住房和财产已成为该市居民与国家之间争端的主要地点之一。随着安哥拉政府寻求建立一个新的城市中心，以反映该国最近建立的和平和日益增长的经济繁荣，城市居民面临着城市破坏和建设的双重过程，以及财产法的变化，使许多形式的战时所有权成为非法。研究人员将使用社会科学研究方法的组合来收集定性和定量数据，包括持续观察，半结构化访谈，档案研究和生活史记录。重点研究领域是：如何以及为什么产生对公民身份的冲突理解，2）哪些过程有助于建筑环境的政治化，以及3）新的所有权形式和对财产的理解如何影响政治关系。通过重新评估财产关系和住房的当代意义，本研究将对财产权与政治包容之间关系的社会科学理论做出原创性贡献。这项研究的结果也将对关注政治和环境可持续城市发展的决策者有用。资助这项研究也支持社会科学家的教育。

University of Chicago doctoral student, Claudia Gastrow, supervised by Dr. Jean Comaroff, will investigate the role of property relations in the emergence of new forms of citizenship. This research takes place against the rising number of disputes over urban land throughout the world. This has been particularly acute in cities of the Global South, where rapid urbanization has been accompanied by growing socio-economic inequality. The researcher will track urban residents' responses to contemporary policy interventions to understand how the lines of citizenship and sovereignty are being redrawn through the reconstitution of the urban environment and concepts of ownership. The researcher will carry out twelve months of fieldwork in Luanda, Angola, where housing and property have become one of the preeminent sites of dispute between the city's residents and the state since of the end of the Angolan civil war (1975-2002). As the Angolan state seeks to create a new urban centre to reflect the country's recently established peace and growing economic prosperity, urban residents are faced with the twin processes of urban destruction and construction, as well as changes in property law that have rendered illegal many forms of wartime ownership. The researcher will use a mix of social science research methods to collect both qualitative and quantitative data, including sustained observations, semi-structured interviews, archival research, and the recording of life histories. Focal research areas are: how and why conflicing understandings of citizenship are produced, 2) which processes contribute to the politicization of the built environment, and 3) how new forms of ownership and understandings of property affect political relationships. Through reassessing the contemporary significance of property relations and housing, this research will make an original contribution to social science theory of the relationship between property rights and political inclusion. The findings from this research also will be useful to policy makers concerned with politically and environmentally sustainable urban development. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.