Doctoral Dissertation Research: Geopolitical Shifts in the Geographies of Extractive Economies

这一博士论文研究项目将分析最近的地缘政治变化如何影响发展中国家的国家层面的资源治理辩论和国家以下政治。这名博士生将研究国家和地方资源政治之间的相互作用，以及采掘业经济中两个更广泛的趋势。第一个趋势是总部设在巴西、俄罗斯、印度、中国和南非的资源开采实体越来越多地参与其中，这些所谓的金砖国家以拥有大型、快速增长的经济体为特征。第二个趋势是各国政府越来越多地参与资源开采。自然资源所有权、治理和收入分配往往是有争议的话题，与开采有关的紧张局势可能加剧或催化开采国的政治动荡，特别是在治理结构不佳的国家。非洲国家和金砖国家越来越多地参与开采，再次引发了外国投资参与者、政府和公民之间在自然资源开采方面紧张关系的地缘政治和政治经济影响。这些动态对各种规模的与开采有关的社会关系具有重大影响，但学术界很少注意到发生开采的国家和地区的居民如何理解这些事态发展。该项目的发现将通过扩展和测试对塑造公民对资源治理和地缘政治认知的个人层面因素的研究，促进关于资源政治和金砖国家日益增长的全球地位的跨学科社会科学知识。通过提供关于形成对资源开采和治理的看法的因素的数据，该项目将增强了解、预测和解决资源丰富国家的政治紧张局势，包括暴力，并改善资源治理，特别是在非洲的能力。在美国寻求重新定义其与发展中国家和在全球经济活动中发挥越来越大作用的快速增长国家的关系之际，这种增强的知识对美国具有至关重要的价值。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。博士生将通过地理方法和多种方法的研究设计，对自然资源所有权、开采和治理的政治进行分析。她将寻求两组焦点问题的答案：(1)总部设在金砖国家的实体如何与国家和国家以下地区的资源开采政治互动？(2)普通公民如何解读和回应这些不断变化的采掘地缘政治和政治，以及哪些因素影响这些解读和回应？学生将使用多标量理论框架来探索个人与一系列国家以下、国家和国际实体之间的互动。这位学生将把她的研究重点放在非洲最大的矿产出口国之一纳米比亚，在国家层面和两个采掘背景不同的国家以下地点对资源政治和地缘政治进行深入分析。她将结合定量和定性方法，调查两个主要研究地点之间地方对资源治理的看法如何不同，并与国家和私人行为者在国家一级的描述进行比较。

This doctoral dissertation research project will analyze how recent geopolitical shifts are affecting national-level resource governance debates and subnational politics in developing nations. The doctoral student will investigate the interplay between national and subnational resource politics and two broader trends in extractive economies. The first of those trends are the growing involvement from resource extraction entities based in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the so-called BRICS states that are characterized as having large, fast-growing economies. The second of the trends is the increasing involvement by national governments in resource extraction. Natural resource ownership, governance, and revenue distribution often are contentious topics, and extraction-related tensions can aggravate or catalyze political unrest in the countries of extraction, particularly in those with poor governance structures. Increasing involvement in extraction by African states and by BRICS actors have raised anew the geopolitical and political economic implications of tensions among foreign investment actors, governments, and citizens with respect to natural resource extraction. These dynamics have significant implications for extraction-related social relations at a variety of scales, but there has been little scholarly attention to how these developments are being understood by residents of the countries and localities where extraction is occurring. This project's findings will advance interdisciplinary social science knowledge regarding resource politics and the increasing global prominence of BRICS states by extending and testing studies of the individual-level factors that shape citizens' perceptions of resource governance and geopolitics. By providing data regarding the factors that shape perceptions of resource extraction and governance, the project will enhance capabilities to understand, predict, and address political tensions, including violence, in resource-rich states and improve resource governance, especially in Africa. This enhanced knowledge is of critical value to the United States as it seeks to redefine its relationships with developing nations and the rapidly growing states that are playing a growing role in global economic activity. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.The doctoral student will undertake an analysis of the politics of natural resource ownership, extraction, and governance through a geographic approach and multiple methods research design. She will seek answers to two sets of focal questions: (1) How have entities based in BRICS nations interacted with national and subnational politics of resource extraction? (2) How are ordinary citizens interpreting and responding to these shifting extractive geopolitics and politics, and which factors shape those interpretations and responses? The student will employ a multi-scalar theoretical framing to explore the interactions between individuals and a range of subnational, national, and international entities. The student will focus her research in Namibia, one of Africa's largest mineral exporters, conducting an in-depth analysis of resource politics and geopolitics at a national level and in two subnational sites with divergent extractive contexts. Integrating quantitative and qualitative methods, she will investigate how local perceptions of resource governance differ between the two primary study sites and in comparison with national-level portrayals by state and private actors.