Doctoral Dissertation Research: Legal Regulatory Regimes and Small-Scale Business Productivity

长期以来，小型企业一直被视为社区生计的关键。它们构成了最大的雇主群体，在成长型行业创造新的就业机会方面意义重大，对当地经济多样化至关重要。在受失业增加和农业和工业部门衰退影响的地区，手工生产尤其被确定为振兴经济的重要渠道。但在进入更大的地区和全球市场时，它们面临着挑战。关于手工经济的现有研究长期以来一直在争论，随着手工生产在全球市场上越来越受欢迎，它们是否可以保持与大规模生产过程分开的状态。目前尚不清楚法律财产认证，如地理标志(GI)和原产地商标，在扩大和保护新企业的市场准入方面产生了什么影响。这项研究项目对学生进行实证、科学的数据收集和分析方法的培训，探索介绍性法律监管制度对小型企业生产能力的影响。除了为人类学研究生的培训提供资金外，研究结果还将传播给探索和管理知识产权和文化财产的原因、后果和复杂性的组织。在加州大学洛杉矶分校Akhil Gupta博士的指导下，Aditi Halbe将探索合法财产认证对手工生产的影响。这项研究将在印度第三大工业化邦古吉拉特邦的卡奇区进行。Kachchh是许多以传统手工艺为主要谋生手段的工匠社区的家园，2001年经历了一场7.7级地震，摧毁了社区的生计。地震发生后，发展组织、社会企业和政府项目帮助重新参与并扩大了传统手工艺的市场，重申了手工生产的重要性。因此，Kachchh处于独特的位置，能够理解手工生产的日常做法如何与更大的发展议程相结合，在面临当前的社会、生态和政治不确定性的情况下，适应民生关切。这项研究的重点是工匠和设计师之间的合作，为国际市场创新产品，研究工匠如何通过调整传统工艺生产的日常流程来谈判全球消费者的需求。方法包括传统的民族志数据收集技术，如参与者观察、深入的半结构化访谈，以及与工匠生产者和利益相关者、开发人员和营利性组织的口述历史。关注通过原产地商标和地理标志等合法文化财产名称对这些产品的认证和监管，本研究将分析小规模手工业生产者制定经济发展战略的制度机制。研究结果将解决手工生产者和消费者如何展望和谈判他们在全球市场中的关系。

Small-scale businesses have long been viewed as crucial to community livelihoods. They constitute the largest block of employers, are significant in creating new jobs in growth industries, and are critical for diversifying the local economy. Artisanal production in particular has been identified as an important channel for economic revitalization in areas afflicted by increased unemployment and declines in the agricultural and industrial sectors. But they face challenges when entering larger regional and global markets. Existing research on artisanal economies has long debated whether artisanal production can remain separate from processes of mass production as their popularity increases in global markets. It is not clear what influence legal property certifications, such as a geographic indication (GI) and origin trademarks, are having in expanding and protecting market access for new businesses. This research project, which trains a student in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, explores what impact introductory legal regulatory regimes have on the productive capacity of small-scale enterprises. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology, findings will be disseminated to aid organizations that explore and manage the causes, consequences, and complexities of intellectual and cultural property. Aditi Halbe, under the supervision of Dr. Akhil Gupta of the University of California, Los Angeles, will explore the impact of legal property certifications on artisanal production. This research will be conducted in Kachchh district of India's third largest industrialized state, Gujarat. Home to many artisan communities that make traditional crafts as their primary means of livelihood, Kachchh experienced a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in 2001 that devastated community livelihoods. Following the earthquake, development organizations, social enterprises, and government programs helped reengage and expand markets for traditional crafts, reaffirming the importance of artisanal production. Kachchh is thus uniquely situated to understanding how daily practices of artisanal production intersect with larger development agendas, attuned to livelihood concerns in the face of current, social, ecological and political uncertainties. Focusing on collaborations between artisans and designers to innovate products for international markets, the research will examine how artisans negotiate the demands of global consumers through adjustments to everyday processes of traditional craft production. Methods include traditional ethnographic data collection techniques such as participant observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and oral histories with artisan producers and stakeholders, development workers, and for-profit organizations. Attending to the authentication and regulation of these products through legal cultural property designations like origin trademarks and geographic indication, this research will analyze the institutional mechanisms by which economic development strategies are enacted upon small-scale artisanal producers. The research findings will address how artisanal producers and consumers envision and negotiate their relationship within the global market.