Unlikely Alliances in Rural-Urban Water Conflicts

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在内华达大学雷诺分校凯特·贝里博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一位研究美国西部城乡水资源冲突的早期职业科学家。随着城市越来越多地向农村地区寻求供水，它们经常遭到顽固的抵制。然而，关于城乡调水方面的冲突和合作的动态还没有得到很好的理解。这项研究通过检测对两个大的农村-城市调水的阻力来解决这一差距。特别是，它试图了解抵制这些转让的不同土著和非土著行为者之间的联盟和结盟的动态。该项目旨在对所谓的不太可能的联盟做出更细致入微的理解。更广泛地说，它寻求增进对争议和集体行动在水治理中的作用的理解。具体地说，这个项目涉及到关于不太可能的联盟、水社会领土和领土多元化的学术研究，以回答三个研究问题。首先，为什么以及何时土著和非土著行为者在共同抵制从农村向城市调水的问题上找到战略联盟或结盟？第二，不同行为者之间的联盟或结盟是如何塑造的，以及如何被水社会领地的构建、动员和竞争所塑造的？第三，土著治理和部落主权的主张如何影响行为者在结盟或结盟以追求水资源正义时驾驭领土多元化的方式？为了解决这些问题，该项目采用了定性方法，对大流域地区的两个调水冲突进行了比较研究。数据收集的方法包括访谈、档案研究和文件审查、参与观察会议和活动，以及将用于讨论和收集对初步调查结果的反馈的焦点小组。这项研究的结果将为关键的水政策辩论提供信息，并为有兴趣建立更多样化联盟的活动家和组织提供见解。通过研究城乡水冲突中关于水社会领域的不同观点，这项研究将有助于学术上理解行为者如何追求水正义和建立新的水制度。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Kate Berry at University of Nevada, Reno, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating rural-urban water conflicts in the Western United States. As cities increasingly look to rural areas for water supplies, they are often met with staunch resistance. Yet, the dynamics of conflict and cooperation over rural-urban water transfers are not well understood. This research addresses this gap by examining resistance to two large rural-urban water transfers. In particular, it seeks to understand the dynamics of alliance and alignment among diverse Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors resisting these transfers. The project aims to contribute a more nuanced understanding of what are called unlikely alliances. More broadly, it seeks to advance understandings of the role of contestation and collective action in water governance. Specifically, this project engages scholarship on unlikely alliances, hydrosocial territory, and territorial pluralism to answer three research questions. First, why and when are Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors finding strategic alliance or alignment over shared resistance to rural-to-urban water transfers? Second, how is alliance or alignment among diverse actors shaping and shaped by the way hydrosocial territories are constructed, mobilized, and contested in water transfer conflicts? Third, how do assertions of Indigenous governance and tribal sovereignty shape the ways actors navigate territorial pluralism as they ally or align in pursuit of water justice? To address these questions, the project employs qualitative methods in a comparative case study of two water transfer conflicts in the Great Basin region. Methods for data collection include interviews, archival research and document review, participant observation of meetings and events, and focus groups that will be used to discuss and gather feedback about preliminary findings. The results of the study will inform key water policy debates and provide insights for activists and organizations interested in building more diverse coalitions. By examining the diverse visions of hydrosocial territory asserted in rural-urban water conflicts, this research will contribute to scholarly understandings of how actors pursue water justice and build new water regimes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.