EAGER: Understanding Change Across Generations in Rural Alaska Native Communities

这个EAGER项目的目的是为开发一个完整的研究项目“文化变革和生活方式”建立必要的能力。在2016年期间，研究人员将前往阿拉斯加的几个地区，与当地学者、教育和政治领导人进行预想的研究项目。这样一个项目必然是土著和非土著社区成员、领导人、学者和学者之间的合作努力。EAGER项目是该项目所代表的基于社区的参与性研究（CBPR）过程中必不可少的第一步。这项研究的重点是获得一个长期的历史和比较的观点，关于阿拉斯加农村的土著人如何应对和应对他们生活和生计的快速变化。因此，这项研究的重点是过去半个世纪以来生存实践和向外迁移的转变。然而，这些进程在过去十年中加速了。这项研究的必要性是显而易见的。了解个人、亲属和社区如何从代际和比较的角度思考和应对这些挑战，不仅对阿拉斯加的农村土著人民，而且对北极圈北部的许多农村社区以及正在进行类似过程的澳大利亚土著社区都具有重要意义。然而，整个研究项目取得成功的关键是，需要与当地地区公司、村庄公司、部落领导人、土著学者、当地、地区和全州的土著组织以及阿拉斯加大学系统和Mt. Edgecumbe高中的教育管理人员进行接触。该项目的关键要素之一是将埃奇库姆山的高中生作为研究团队的一部分。与埃奇库姆山管理人员和教师的初步讨论一直令人鼓舞。然而，一个基于社区的参与性项目需要PI在全州范围内进行面对面的会议，讨论潜在的设计、好处和更大的优点。此外，PI将有机会听取土著人民的意见并向他们学习，这强调了未来社会科学研究项目的合作可能性。重要的是，这项研究将有助于了解阿拉斯加原住民面临的各种问题，对亲属的影响以及社区使用的应对策略。除学术文章外，本项目产生的数据将由整个研究小组以口头和书面方式广泛传播：向参与研究的当地社区、部落组织以及全州和国际会议传播。还将采用其他几种方法，包括数字讲故事和分享研究成果的网络平台。这个项目在方法上是创新的，因为在整个研究项目中嵌入了代表性不足的群体；阿拉斯加土著高中生将成为研究小组不可或缺的成员，同时还有一个由阿拉斯加土著老年人和年轻人组成的咨询委员会。此外，参与该项目的阿拉斯加土著学生将在一系列社会科学方法的培训中获得宝贵的经验。阿拉斯加大学的一名研究生研究助理将接受研究方法、北极圈北部的历史和人类学方面的培训。在过去的半个世纪里，阿拉斯加土著居民经历了重大的社会经济、政治和文化挑战。他们的政治和经济环境的变化、环境的变化以及人口的大量流动，特别是在过去二十年中，已经改变了农村社区许多人的生活和生计。然而，这些转变并不是每个人、每个地方都以同样的方式经历的，而是因地理、世代、性别和阶级而有所不同（Krupnik和Vakhtin 1997， Berger 1984, Martin 2009, Taylor 2011）。通过民族志田野调查、关键信息访谈和口述历史，更大的研究将通过老年人和年轻人之间的代际对话来研究如何利用一系列亲属、社区和文化习俗来理解、赋予意义并应对他们生活中的重大动荡。这些转变最明显的表现可能是参与生计生产的人数下降（Callaway 1994; McNeeley 2012; Dinero 2013）和年轻人的外迁。这项研究将是比较的，因为它不仅通过历史和文化的概念探索了几代农村土著人民的这些关键问题，而且还获得了阿拉斯加一些主要种族和生态区的观点。此外，该项目在方法上具有创新性，因为8名阿拉斯加土著高中生（将被选中并随后接受人类学方法方面的培训）将在整个项目的所有关键阶段成为研究小组不可或缺的成员；从设计到数据收集和分析再到数据传播。学生将承担双重角色，不仅是研究人员，也是对话者。因此，他们的参与有可能通过质疑知识和文化权威之间的紧张关系来推动局内人/局外人角色之间的界限（Mallon 2012）。在过去的十年中，北极社会科学研究人员通过北极社会科学计划对CBPR理论和方法的发展做出了许多贡献。通过促进北极社区成员参与从设计、数据收集、分析到出版的科研项目，北极社会科学界不仅加强了他们的研究，而且使其与这些社区更加相关。该提案将在这些努力的基础上，将CBPR模式扩展到北极的几代人。拟议的研究项目将包括代际参与，作为在北极发展的CBPR模式的一个新组成部分。通过该奖项，PI将在撰写并提交大型研究计划之前，与当地土著和非土著领导人、教育工作者和学者合作；没有他们的投入，预期的更大项目将与CBPR研究模型不一致。

This EAGER project is to build the capacity necessary for the development of a full research project, "Culture Change and a Way of Life." During the course of 2016 the researcher will travel to several regions of Alaska to engage with indigenous scholars and educational and political leaders for an envisioned research project. Such a project would by necessity be a collaborative effort between indigenous and non-indigenous community members, leaders, academics, and scholars. The EAGER project is an essential first step in the Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) process that this project represents. The focus of the research is to gain a long-term historical and comparative perspective on how rural Alaska Native people are coping with and responding to rapid changes in their lives and livelihoods. As such this research focuses on shifts in subsistence practices and out-migration that can be traced across the past half century. Yet, these processes have accelerated over the past decade. The need for this research is pronounced. Understanding how individuals, kin and communities are thinking about and responding to these challenges from generational and comparative points of view has critical implications not only for rural indigenous peoples in Alaska but to many rural communities across the Circumpolar North as well as in aboriginal communities in Australia where similar processes are underway. Crucial to the success of the full research project, however, is the need to engage with leaders in Native Regional Corporations, Village Corporations, Tribal leaders, indigenous scholars, Native organizations locally, regionally and statewide, as well as educational administrators at the University of Alaska system and Mt. Edgecumbe High School. One of the key elements of the project would be the inclusion of Mt. Edgecumbe high school students as part of the research team. Preliminary discussions with Mt. Edgecumbe administrators and pedagogues have been have been encouraging. However, a community based participatory project necessitates that the PI travel statewide to have face-to-face meetings to discuss the potential design, benefits and merits of the larger. Moreover, the PI will have the opportunity to listen and learn from Native peoples underscoring the collaborative possibilities of a future social science research project. Importantly this study will contribute to an understanding of the kinds of issues Alaska Native peoples are facing, the effects on kin and the panoply of coping strategies that are utilized by communities. In addition to the academic articles the data produced by this project will be disseminated, orally and written, widely by the entire research team: to local communities involved in the research to tribal organizations, as well as at statewide and international conferences. Several additional methods will be utilized including digital storytelling and web-based platforms in sharing research results. This project is innovative methodologically in that underrepresented groups are embedded throughout the entire research project; Alaska Native high school students will be integral members of the research team alongside an Advisory Council made up of Alaska Native elders and young adults. Moreover, the Alaska Native students involved in the project will gain invaluable hands on training in a range of social science methodologies. A graduate research assistant at the University of Alaska will be trained in research methods and the history and anthropology of the Circumpolar North.Over the past half-century Alaska Native populations have experienced major socio-economic, political and cultural challenges. Changes in their political and economic circumstances, environmental shifts as well as substantial demographic flux, especially over the past two decades, have reworked the lives and livelihoods of many in rural communities. These transformations, however, are not experienced by everyone, everywhere in the same way, but rather are differentiated by geography, generation, gender and class (Krupnik and Vakhtin 1997, Berger 1984, Martin 2009, Taylor 2011). Using ethnographic fieldwork, key informant interviews, and oral histories the larger study will examine - through an intergenerational dialogue between elders and youth - how a range of kin, community and cultural practices may be utilized to make sense of, give meaning to and cope with significant upheavals in their lives. These transformations are perhaps most visible in declining participation in subsistence production (Callaway 1994; McNeeley 2012; Dinero 2013) and outmigration by young adults. The research will be comparative in that it not only explores these key issues across generations of rural indigenous peoples through notions of history and culture, but also garners perspectives across some of the major ethnic and ecological zones in Alaska. Moreover, this project is innovative methodologically in that eight Alaska Native high school students (to be selected and subsequently trained in anthropological methods) will be integral members of the research team at all key stages throughout the project; from design to data collection and analysis to data dissemination. The students will assume dual roles not only as researchers but also as interlocutors. As such their participation has the potential to push the boundaries between insider/outsider roles by interrogating the tensions between intellectual and cultural authority (Mallon 2012).Over the last decade Arctic social science researchers, through the Arctic Social Science Program, have contributed much to the development of CBPR theories and methods. By promoting the inclusion of Arctic community members in scientific research projects from design, to data collection, to analyses, to publication, the Arctic social science community has not only strengthened their research but also made it more relevant to these communities. This proposal would build on these efforts and expand the CBPR model across generations in the Arctic. The proposed research project would include intergenerational participation as a new component of the CBPR model developing in the Arctic. Through this award, the PI will engage local indigenous and non-indigenous leaders, educators, and scholars in the project prior to writing and submitting a large research proposal; without their input the anticipated larger project would not be consistent with a CBPR model of research.