Doctoral Dissertation Research: Petro-Politics at the Grassroots: Big Oil, Environmental Education and Governance in Brazil

布朗大学博士生Paula S. Dias将在Dr. Chanaca Leinaweaver的指导下，研究与石油开采有关的经济发展项目如何影响和阐明当地政治和社会动态。由于一些政府将发展责任下放给资源开采公司，作为开展业务的成本，这些开采活动的影响扩大了，往往是以意想不到的方式扩大的。该项目将追踪这些影响是如何理解和经历的，以及这些影响揭示了当地政治进程及其与更高层次政治的关系。这项研究将在巴西进行，巴西政府对石油开采的监管与石油公司资助的强制性社区一级的环境教育项目相结合。迪亚斯将在位于巴西东北部的非洲后裔（“马龙人”）社区Quilombo da Rasa进行为期12个月的人种学研究。 她将收集有关EE和社区政治之间的关系在两个层面上的数据：（1）政治实践和与国家机构的关系更广泛的水平;和（2）社区社会动态的更微观的水平。她将采用社会科学研究方法的混合，包括参与观察，访谈和档案研究。 这项研究的结果将有助于社会科学理论的政治进程如何在整个关系链的工作，从国家机构到社区一级的权力动态。这项研究还将帮助政策制定者理解更广泛的治理逻辑，这些逻辑将资源开采的战略利益与渐进的环境立法和国家对公司的监管联系起来。资助这项研究可以支持研究生的教育。

Brown University doctoral student Paula S. Dias, guided by Dr. Jessaca Leinaweaver, will undertake research on how economic development projects linked to oil extraction affect and illuminate local politics and social dynamics. As some governments delegate development responsiblities to resource extraction corporations as a cost of doing business, the effects of these extraction activities are broadened, often in ways that are unanticipated. This project will trace how these impacts are understood and experienced and what these impacts reveal about local political processes and their relation to higher level politics more generally. The research will be conducted in Brazil, where government regulation of oil extraction is coupled with mandatory community-level, oil company-funded Environmental Education (EE) projects.Dias will carry out 12 months of ethnographic research in Quilombo da Rasa, a community of Afro-descendants ("maroons") located in northeast Brazil. She will collect data on the relationship between EE and community politics at two levels: (1) the broader level of political practices and relations with state agencies; and (2) the more micro level of community social dynamics. She will employ a mix of social science research methods including participant observation, interviews, and archival research. Findings from this research will contribute to social science theory of how political processes work throughout the chain of relationships, from national institutions to community-level power dynamics. The research also will help policy makers to understand the broader logics of governance that bridge strategic interests of resource extraction with progressive environmental legislation and state regulation of corporations. Funding this research supports the education of a graduate student.