Doctoral Dissertation Research: Political Ecologies of Value: Tourism & Social Conflict in Baja California Sur, Mexico

肯塔基大学博士生瑞安·安德森将在萨拉·里昂博士的指导下，从事开发项目冲突对当地生态影响的研究。安德森将专注于经济价值与道德和文化价值之间可能出现的紧张关系。他将在墨西哥南巴哈加利福尼亚州的东开普省进行研究，初步研究表明，那里的一个大型开发项目导致居民严重分裂。这项研究旨在探索文化、伦理和经济价值的社会生产与人们如何使用、理解、利用和塑造他们所居住的地理和生态空间之间的关系。安德森将与该地区的两个社区进行为期12个月的民族志田野调查。他将采用多方面的研究设计，包括参与者观察、开放式和半结构化访谈、GPS地图和摄影文档。这些数据将使他能够1)记录居民的反应范围；2)了解相互竞争的社会价值观与旅游目的地的设计和使用之间的关系；3)确定旅游的更大政治经济与当地对文化、社会和获得公共空间和水等关键资源的影响之间的联系。这项研究的发现将有助于社会科学理解不同类型的价值观如何影响当地的经济发展项目，特别是旅游项目，并受到这些项目的影响。除了支持社会科学家的培训外，这项研究还将对社区成员、学者和地方和全球层面的政策制定者具有重要意义。

University of Kentucky doctoral candidate Ryan Anderson, supervised by Dr. Sarah Lyon, will undertake research on the local ecological effects of conflicts about development projects. Anderson will focus on tensions that may arise between economic values, on the one hand, and moral and cultural values on the others. He will carry out the research on the East Cape of Baja California Sur, Mexico, where preliminary research indicates that a large-scale development project has residents deeply divided. The research is designed to explore connections between the social production of cultural, ethical, and economic value and how people use, understand, exploit, and shape the geographic and ecological spaces in which they live.Anderson will conduct 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork with two communities in the region. He will employ a multi-faceted research design that includes participant observation, open-ended and semi-structured interviews, GPS mapping, and photographic documentation. These data will allow him to 1) document the range of resident responses; 2) understand the relationship between competing social values and design and use of tourism destinations; and 3) and identify connections between the larger political economy of tourism and local impacts on culture, society, and access to critical resources such as public space and water. Findings from this research will contribute to social scientific understanding of how different kinds of values affect and are affected by local economic development projects and tourism projects in particular. In addition to supporting the training of a social scientist, this research will be significant for community members, academics, and policymakers at both the local and global level.