The Economic and Social Impacts of New Infrastructural Development in Rural Areas

道路建设为人们提供了新的经济和社会机会，并开辟或改善了通往新地方的途径。在美国和世界各地，农村居民经常积极游说地方和联邦政府修建或改善道路，特别是在农村地区，由于经济机会有限，教育和其他社会服务很难获得，基础设施很少得到改善，农村地区的贫困程度很高。在倡导道路建设和改善时，当地人首先设想的是改善经济机会，无论是由于交通便利到工作岗位、将货物运送出去销售、新工作岗位的到来，还是通过与新道路相结合的新的创业活动的机会。住在新路附近的人可能还会期待与大家庭和远方的朋友或同事进行更容易的沟通和访问，并改善获得医疗保健、学校和其他社会服务的机会。然而，人们并不总是预料到新道路可能带来的一些问题，比如由于更容易进入和快速逃离社区而导致的犯罪和毒品活动增加，或者外来者购买土地和财产的增加可能会推高当地人的税收。在某些情况下，新的道路可能导致人们珍视的共享的当地资源(如海洋、湖泊、森林或牧场通道)私有化，从而对当地人民的谋生能力产生负面影响。肯塔基大学的人类学家克莱格特博士对一条新公路附近的社区进行了深入研究，他将研究新公路如何才能最好地造福当地人，并找出避免这种基础设施开发的负面影响的方法。这条公路是2016年在一个贫困的农村社区修建的。项目成果也将向非学术受众展示，以加强向公众传播科学的努力。该项目将对研究生进行科学依据和经验数据收集方法的培训。研究将在赞比亚农村进行，最近世界银行资助的一个项目促进了卡里巴湖海岸线(赞比西河流域的一部分)沿线的一条新公路的建设，该地区位于一个偏远地区，很难进入，而且以贫困著称。克莱格特博士和她的研究团队，包括美国学生，将在这条新的交通走廊两端的两个社区调查道路造成的各种影响。之所以选择它，是因为它是研究通过基础设施发展进行长期变化的理想地点。这两个社区以前是一个大村庄的一部分，有着紧密的家庭联系和相互依存的农村生计，但在1958年卡里巴大坝建在赞比西河上时被分开。尽管两个村庄在物理上相距(约130英里)，但两个社区仍然通过亲属关系和当地政治组织保持社会联系。这条新公路自1958年以来首次允许这两个社区之间的直达交通路线(约4小时)。因此，除了新的经济机会外，这条新道路可能还会促进社会网络、家庭团聚和政治活动的复兴。研究小组将调查这两个社区的女性、男性和当地政治领袖，了解他们的经济活动自公路修建以来发生了什么变化，他们与住在公路两端的亲友的社会关系的变化，以及外来者进入湖边和公路附近其他土地的影响。除了调查访谈，研究小组还将使用数字地图工具来识别经济活动地点和外来者购买土地的地点。研究小组将使用这些社区长期研究项目(1958年开始的Gwembe Thoma研究项目)的基线信息，以评估自公路修建以来当地经济、社会网络和土地私有化的变化。这项研究将使克莱格特博士和她的研究团队能够提出政策建议，以增强这类新基础设施的好处，同时将与新道路或其他类似基础设施相关的负面影响降至最低。

Road construction offers new economic and social opportunities for people, and opens, or improves, access to new places. In the U.S. and around the world, rural people often aggressively lobby local and federal governments for new or improved roads, especially in rural areas with high poverty due to limited economic opportunities, poor access to education and other social services, and where infrastructure improvements are rare. In advocating for road construction and improvement, local people imagine first and foremost, improved economic opportunities, whether due to ease of transportation to jobs, transporting goods out for sale, the arrival of new jobs, or through opportunities for new entrepreneurial activity in conjunction with the new road. People living near a new road may also anticipate easier communication and visiting with extended family and distant friends or colleagues, and improved access to health care, schools and other social services. However, people do not always anticipate some of the problems that new roads can bring, such as increased crime and drug activity due to easier access and fast escape from communities, or increases in outsider purchase of land and property that may drive up taxes for local people. In some cases, new roads can lead to shared local resources that people value (such as ocean, lake, forest or pasture access) becoming privatized, which consequently negatively impacts local people's ability to make a living. Through an intensive study of communities living near a new road built in 2016 in an impoverished rural community, Dr. Cliggett, an anthropologist at the University of Kentucky, will investigate how new roads can best benefit local people and identify ways to avoid the negative aspects of this kind of infrastructure development. Project findings will also be presented to non-academic audiences, improving efforts to communicate science to the public. The project would train graduate students in methods of scientifically-grounded and empirical data collection.The research will be conducted in rural Zambia where a recent World Bank funded project facilitated the construction of a new road along the Kariba Lake shoreline (part of the Zambezi River valley), in a remote region, difficult to access and known for its poverty. Dr. Cliggett and her research team, which includes US students, will investigate the variety of impacts from the road in two communities at opposite ends this new transportation corridor. It is selected because it is an ideal site for examining long-term change through infrastructural development. These two communities were previously part of one large village with dense family ties and interdependent rural livelihoods, but were separated in 1958 when the Kariba Dam was built on the Zambezi river. Despite the physical distance of the two villages (approximately 130 miles), the communities remain socially connected through kinship and local political organizations. The new road allows direct transportation routes (approximately 4 hours) between these two communities for the first time since 1958. Consequently, the new road is likely to facilitate a resurgence of social networks, family reintegration and political activity, in addition to new economic opportunities. The research team will survey women, men and local political leaders in the two communities about how their economic activities have changed since the road was built, changes in their social connections with relatives and friends living at opposite ends of the road, and the impacts of outsiders gaining access to lakeshore and other lands near the road. In addition to survey interviews, the research team will use digital mapping tools to identify places of economic activity and places where land is being purchased by outsiders. The research team will use baseline information from a long-term research project (Gwembe Tonga Research Project, started in 1958) in these communities to assess how local economies, social networks, and privatization of land have changed since the road was built. This research will allow Dr. Cliggett and her research team to make policy recommendations that can enhance the benefits of this kind of new infrastructure, while minimizing the negative impacts associated with new roads or other similar infrastructure.