Doctoral Dissertation Research: Implementing International Standards in the Commodification of Brazilian Biofuels

宾夕法尼亚大学博士生德里克·纽伯里在Adriana Petryna博士的指导下，将在巴西S圣保罗从事生物燃料标准的制定和实施方面的研究。巴西生物燃料生产商寻求进入可持续能源的全球市场，但为了做到这一点，他们必须满足这些市场所在国家政府规定的社会和环境标准。作为回应，乙醇高管与巴西国内外的能源专家、政府官员和活动人士一起制定了一个环境和社会生产标准，该标准将由炼油厂经理执行。这些对道德上负责任的生产有不同理解的利益攸关方如何制定和实施标准，将决定乙醇作为一种主要出口产品是否成功，以及其社会环境影响如何分配。因此，这项研究将分析制定和实施乙醇标准的参与者之间的动态关系，描述构成这一新兴绿色能源商品链的知识劳动和工作实践。德里克·纽伯里将在S在参与制定乙醇可持续性标准的专业人员中以及在该州内陆正在实施这些标准的生产地点进行人种学田野调查。他将使用一系列社会科学研究方法，包括参与者观察和深入采访，收集不同行为者关于什么构成道德责任生产的伦理思想的数据。他还将调查选择有关可持续乙醇的想法的工作实践，以及这些想法如何影响标准和生产链。这项研究的发现将有助于社会科学理论，即通过监管文化的视角，如何将当地流程与国际流程联系起来。这项研究还可能支持促进乙醇标准谈判的透明度，这对生产者和受这种能源生产影响的当地居民都有影响。资助这项研究还支持研究生的教育。

University of Pennsylvania doctoral student, Derek Newberry, supervised by Dr. Adriana Petryna, will undertake research on the creation and implementation of biofuel standards in São Paulo, Brazil. Brazilian biofuel producers seek to tap into global markets for sustainable energies but in order to do so, they must meet the social and environmental criteria mandated by the governments of countries where those markets are located. In response, ethanol executives have joined energy experts, government officials, and activists in Brazil and abroad to produce an environmental and social production standard, which is to be implemented by refinery managers. How these stakeholders with different understandings of morally responsible production create and implement standards will determine whether ethanol is successful as a major export and how its socio-environmental impacts are distributed. This research will therefore analyze the dynamic relationship between actors defining and implementing ethanol standards, describing the knowledge labor and work practices that constitute this emergent green energy commodity chain. Derek Newberry will conduct ethnographic fieldwork in São Paulo among professionals involved in creating ethanol sustainability standards and at a production site in the interior of the state where the standards are being put into practice. He will use a range of social science research methods including participant observation and in-depth interviews to collect data on the ethical ideas held by different actors about what constitutes morally responsible production. He will also investigate the work practices through which ideas about sustainable ethanol are selected and how these affect the standards and the production chain.Findings from this research will contribute to social science theory of how local processes connect with international ones, as viewed through the lens of cultures of regulation. The research may also support the promotion of transparency for ethanol standards negotiations that affect both the producers and the local residents who are impacted by production of this energy. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.