Doctoral Dissertation Research: Homelessness and Governance in Post-Socialist Bucharest

斯坦福大学博士生布鲁斯·奥尼尔将在詹姆斯·G·弗格森博士的指导下，对后社会主义时代的无家可归者进行人种学研究。在许多后社会主义国家，无家可归是一种新现象，因为以前的社会主义国家为所有人提供某种类型的住房(公寓，但也有孤儿院和疗养院)。这位研究人员希望调查无家可归者与治理实践、城市空间系统以及无家可归者自我呈现之间的关系。这项研究将在罗马尼亚布加勒斯特的无家可归者收容所进行，那里的无家可归者收容所人口不断增长--罗马尼亚向全球经济转型的过程中被排除在外的男人、妇女和儿童。初步研究显示，避难所居民明显和自觉地感到无聊。现有的社会科学文献将无聊理解为“无所事事的时间”，但研究人员将调查无聊可能是有成效的，是治理的一种形式，还是对这种治理的抵制。奥尼尔将通过一个由三个社会领域组成的多地点民族志来研究这一现象，使用参与者观察和对关键信息者的深入采访。第一个社会领域是由国家和非政府组织管理的一套庇护所。第二个社会领域侧重于公共空间，包括紧邻无家可归者收容所周围的社区，以及布加勒斯特市中心无家可归者为逃避无聊而光顾的社区。第三个社会领域包括管理住房政策的中层政府办公室。这项研究的发现将在以下方面做出理论贡献：(1)将后社会主义无家可归现象置于背景中；(2)调查迄今被忽视的边疆话题，将其重新概念化为生产性情感；(3)揭示情感与特定空间和地点之间的关系；以及(4)确定影响如何被各种治理项目所占用。这项研究将提供一个新的窗口，了解经典社会科学对后社会主义背景下的贫困、生产力和治理的关注。支持这项研究也支持研究生的教育。

Stanford University Doctoral Candidate Bruce O'Neill, with the guidance of Dr. James G. Ferguson, will conduct ethnographic research on post-socialist homelessness. In many post-socialist countries, homelessness is a new phenomenon because the previous socialist states provided housing of some sort (apartments, but also orphanages and sanitoria) for all. The researcher wishes to investigate the relationship between homelessness and governance practices, urban spatial systems, and self-presentation of homeless people.The research will be conducted in homeless shelters in Bucharest, Romania, which has a growing homeless shelter population - men, women and children left out of Romania's transition to the global economy. Preliminary research revealed that shelter residents are conspicuously and self-consciously bored. The existing social science literature understands boredom as 'time idly spent,' but the researcher will investigate the possibility that boredom may be productive, a form of governance or resistance to such governance. O'Neill will investigate this phonomenon through a multi-sited ethnography comprised of three social fields using participant-observation and in-depth interviewing of key informants. The first social field is a set of shelters administered by the state and by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The second social field focuses on public spaces, including the neighborhoods immediately surrounding homeless shelters as well as those in central Bucharest that the homeless visit to escape their boredom. The third social field includes mid-level government offices where shelter policy is administered. Findings from this research will make theoretical contributions by (1) contextualizing post-socialist homelessness; (2) investigating the heretofore neglected topic of bordeom, re-conceptualized as productive affect; (3) revealing the relationships between affect and particular spaces and places; and (4) determining how affect comes to be appropriated by various projects of governance. This research will provide a new window into the classical social science concerns about poverty, productivity, and governance in post-socialist contexts. Supporting this research also supports the education of a graduate student.