Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Networks and Class in a Contemporary Caribbean Society

博士论文研究：当代加勒比社会的社会网络和阶级美国大学人类学博士候选人，希望巴斯蒂安马丁内斯，由布雷特威廉姆斯博士监督，将调查生活在城市环境中的不同社会群体的个体如何使用个人网络来解决在快速变化，普遍不确定性和日益增长的经济不平等的历史时刻遇到的日常社会经济挑战。本研究将探讨消费实践的变化和消费的新机会如何影响社会网络、分层过程和新兴身份。研究人员将通过参与观察的方法，在社会网络活跃的日常建设和维护的两个社交场所，以及结构化访谈中绘制个人网络。研究质疑是否有证据表明，在冷战结束后的紧缩时期和重新分层时期形成的联系可能将社会的新“上层”和“底层”联系起来。研究设计将测试这些网络是否通过个人关系非正式地分配财富和机会来缓解日益严重的经济不平等的影响。这项研究很重要，因为它将有助于当代世界社会不平等的新理论。研究结果可能对寻求以社会政策为目标来解决社会不平等问题的政策制定者也有价值。这项研究也支持研究生的教育。

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Networks and Class in a Contemporary Caribbean SocietyAmerican University anthropology doctoral candidate, Hope Bastian Martinez, supervised by Dr. Brett Williams, will investigate how individuals of different social groups living in an urban setting use personal networks to resolve everyday socioeconomic challenges encountered in a historic moment characterized by rapid changes, generalized uncertainty, and growing economic inequalities. This research will explore how changes in consumption practices and new opportunities for consumption are affecting social networks, processes of stratification, and emerging identities.The researcher will map personal networks through methods of participant observation in two sites of sociability central to the active everyday construction and maintenance of social networks, and structured interviews. Research questions query whether there is evidence that ties formed in the period of austerity and re-stratification following the end of the Cold War might connect the new "top" and "bottom" of society. The research design will test whether these networks mitigate the effects of growing economic inequalities by informally distributing wealth and opportunities through personal ties.This research is important because it will contribute to new theories of social inequality in the contemporary world. The research findings may also be of value to policymakers who are seeking to target social policy to address social inequalities. This research also supports the education of a graduate student.