Doctoral Dissertation Research: Borderland Orders: An Ethnographic Exploration of Border Securitization in a High Population Density Context

在耶鲁大学Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan的指导下，Shana Ghosh探索了新建立的边界如何改变社会、文化和经济关系并影响跨境活动。该项目询问以前漏洞百出的边界的证券化如何影响区域经济网络和影响边界居民的日常生活和生计。这项研究发生在印度和孟加拉国的边界上，这是一条4000公里长的边界，印度最近主动对其进行围栏和守卫。这是进行这项研究的合适地点，因为证券化是在人口稠密的地区进行的。大多数关于边境地区的研究倾向于将边境视为防御景观或犯罪区域，而不是人口稠密地区的流动性和流通性。这个项目的重点是世界上一个正在向民主和自由贸易过渡的地区出现的新经济和新关系。研究人员将进行为期16个月的人种学研究，将参与者观察与访谈、生活史、网络地图以及与这一边境地区的居民、边境安全部队和两国地方行政官员的焦点小组讨论结合起来。这项研究将集中在孟加拉北部，并将总部设在印度的Coochbehar区和孟加拉国的Lalmonirhat区。广泛的研究方法和线人将为出于家庭、宗教和经济原因参与跨境流动提供丰富的描述。该项目批判性地与现有的关于跨境流动的假设相结合，以揭示人和货物如何以及为什么流动，从居住在这个边境地区并每天体验其证券化的人的角度来阐明关于流动、公民身份和安全的辩论和价值观。它将有助于关于国家之间的关系、支撑跨境活动的社会实践和结构的科学辩论，以及关于移民、重新安置和跨民族主义的辩论。该项目的发现将对政策制定者和从业者大有裨益，他们希望了解社会经济稳定、移民和贸易在世界上正在去民主化的地区所起的作用。该项目还提供一名研究生的培训。

Shana Ghosh, under the supervision of Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan at Yale University explores how newly established borderlands transform social, cultural, and economic relationships and influence cross-border activities. The project asks how the securitization of previously porous borders impacts regional economic networks and affects the daily lives and livelihoods of borderland residents. The research takes place along the border of India and Bangladesh, a 4,000 km long border which India has recently taken the initiative to fence and guard. This is an appropriate site for this study since securitization is taking place within a densely populated area. Most studies of borderlands have tended to regard borders as landscapes of defense or as zones of criminality, rather than as places characterized by the mobility and circulation that one might find in densely populated areas. This project focuses on the new economies and relationships that emerge in an area of the world that has been transitioning to democracy and free trade. The researcher will conduct 16 months of ethnographic research combining participant observation with interviews, life histories, network mapping, and focus group discussions with residents of this borderland, border security forces, and local administrative officials of both countries. The research will focus on northern Bengal, and be based in Coochbehar district, India and Lalmonirhat district, Bangladesh. The wide range of research methods and informants will provide a rich account of participation in transborder movements for familial, religious, and economic reasons.The project critically engages with the existing assumptions about cross-border movements to uncover how and why people and goods move, to illuminate debates and values on mobility, citizenship, and security from the points of view of those who reside in this borderland and experience its securitization daily. It will contribute to scientific debates about the relationships between states, the social practices and structures that undergird cross-border activities, and debates about migration, resettlement, and transnationalism. The project's findings will be of great benefit to policymakers and practitioners concerned with understanding how the role socioeconomic stability, migration and trade play in areas of the world that are democractizing. The project also provides for the training of a graduate student.