Collaborative Proposal: The Impact of Oil Extraction, Regulatory Policy, and Environmental Practice on Native Amazon and Afro-Ecuadorian Communities

Gabriela Valdivia博士（北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校）和Flora Lu博士（加州大学圣克鲁斯分校）将合作开展研究，调查监管变化对政府、行业和社区之间关系的影响。这项研究将在厄瓜多尔亚马逊地区的华欧拉尼社区进行，那里是地震勘探和石油开采的主要地点，同时也将在毗邻该国主要炼油厂的沿海城市埃斯梅拉达斯进行。Valdivia和Lu将结合档案、人种学、家庭经济和调查方法来描述新的监管框架；检查谁生活在石油社区，以及他们的日常生活和活动如何与这个采掘业相交；探索对石油的活生生的、发自内心的体验和感知，关注性别和代际动态。他们将与厄瓜多尔学者合作，在六个研究社区开展焦点小组、关键信息提供者访谈、档案研究、参与性观察、时间分配研究、家庭经济日记、调查（主题包括饮食摄入、感知健康和福祉）以及参与性制图和摄影。厄瓜多尔同南美洲其他国家一样，最近寻求减少对外国直接投资和进口能源依赖的战略。该项目对环境和能源政策的人类学和更广泛的社会科学分析以及对管制和公共政策的分析作出了重大贡献。该项目将把这项研究的材料整合到美国和拉丁美洲研究生和本科生的课程中。在能源和环境政策方面，科学家之间也有完善的国际经验、思想和解决方案交流计划。

Dr. Gabriela Valdivia (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Dr. Flora Lu (UC Santa Cruz) will collaborate in research to investigate the effects of regulatory changes on the relationships between government, industry, and communities. The research will take place in Huaorani communities in the Amazon region of Ecuador, a major site of seismic exploration and oil extraction, as well as in the coastal city of Esmeraldas, adjacent to the nation's main oil refinery. Valdivia and Lu will conduct a combination of archival, ethnographic, household economic, and survey approaches to characterize the new regulatory framework; examine who lives in oil communities and how their daily routines and activities intersect with this extractive industry; and explore the lived, visceral experience and perceptions of oil, with attention to gendered and generational dynamics. In collaboration with Ecuadorian scholars, they will undertake focus groups, key informant interviews, archival research, participant observation, time allocation studies, household economic diaries, surveys (on topics including dietary intake, perceived health and well-being), and participatory mapping and photography in six study communities. Ecuador, like other countries in South America, has recently sought strategies to reduce its dependency on foreign direct investment and imported energy. The project contributes significantly to anthropological and broader social scientific analyses of environmental and energy policy, and analyses of regulation and public policy. The project will integrate the material from this research into coursework at both the graduate and undergraduate level in both the U.S. and Latin America. There are also well developed plans for the international exchange of experiences, ideas, and solutions among scientists focused on energy and environmental policy.