Doctoral Dissertation Research: Everyday Relationships, Political Frontiers, and Industrial Market Zones

国际边界上的工业和商业集中区经常被开发商宣传为经济发展的引擎和改善政治关系的催化剂。社会科学家对此持怀疑态度，他们指出，当有关国家拥有不平等的权力时，经济特区可能会通过增加经济和政治不平等而使不稳定永久化。然而，很少有关于实现积极或消极成果的实地进程的研究。芝加哥大学博士生杰里米·齐格曼将在威廉·马扎雷拉博士的指导下，在以色列占领的西岸的一个商业接触区进行研究，以解决这一知识差距。这是一个理想的地点，因为发展以色列人和巴勒斯坦人之间的经济联系可能导致他们之间以及整个区域的和平共处的想法一直是该区域外国投资的主要支柱。这将是第一次对以色列占领的约旦河西岸的以色列-巴勒斯坦商业接触进行详细研究。研究人员将对以色列-巴勒斯坦日常接触进行为期12个月的人种学研究。他将把重点放在以色列控制的商业和工业区，许多巴勒斯坦人在那里工作，有时购物。研究方法将包括对市场做法的参与性观察，并辅之以对媒体和活动家材料的内容分析;对以色列和巴勒斯坦工人、购物者、安全机构和活动家的广泛采访;以及对当地经济分析师的采访。这些数据将使他能够评估以色列人和巴勒斯坦人如何通过日常工作和购物活动来构建彼此的关系，以及这种框架如何也会被工作场所纠纷，性别紧张局势，政治或宗教辩论和安全活动等普通事件所破坏或破坏。只有用阿拉伯语和希伯来语进行的详细的参与者观察和采访，才能揭示这些复杂的空间，两个分离的社会世界走到一起。基于以前在该地区的经验和他的语言流利，Stiegman的研究将揭示以色列-巴勒斯坦商业接触的难题。

Concentrated industrial and commercial zones on international borders are frequently promoted by their developers as both engines of economic development and catalysts for improved political relationships. Social scientists have been more skeptical, pointing out that when the countries involved have unequal power, special economic zones may perpetuate instability through increased economic and political inequality. However, there is little research on the on-the-ground processes through which either positive or negative outcomes are realized. University of Chicago doctoral student Jeremy Siegman, who is supervised by Dr. William Mazzarella, will undertake research in a commercial contact zone in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to address this knowledge gap. This is an ideal site because the idea that developing economic ties between Israelis and Palestinians might lead to peaceful coexistence between them and throughout the region has been a mainstay of foreign investment in the region. This will be the first detailed study of Israeli-Palestinian commercial contact in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.The researcher will undertake a 12-month ethnographic study of Israeli-Palestinian contact as it takes place in daily practice. He will focus on Israeli-controlled commercial and industrial zones where many Palestinians work and sometimes shop. Research methods will include participant observation of market practices, supplemented with content analyses of media and activist materials; extensive interviews with Israelis and Palestinian workers, shoppers, security agencies and activists; and interviews with local economic analysts. These data will allow him to assess how, through everyday work and shopping practices, Israelis and Palestinians frame their relations to each other and how such framings may also be disrupted or undermined by such ordinary events as workplace disputes, gendered tensions, political or religious debates, and security activities. Only detailed participant-observation and interviews, conducted in both Arabic and Hebrew, can shed light on these complex spaces where two separated social worlds come together. Building on previous experience in the area and his linguistic fluency, Stiegman's research will shed new light on the puzzle of Israeli-Palestinian commercial contact.