Democracy, Demography, and Social Movements in the Northwestern United States

社会科学家一直在努力理解社会是如何从一个单一的主导民族过渡到一个多种族的民主国家的。美国为我们更好地理解这一更大的现象提供了机会，因为目前的少数种族预计到2042年将成为人口的多数。可持续的民主有赖于公民参与和社区参与。本研究探讨了哪些变量对公民参与的感知活力和有效性有贡献。该项目有助于本科生和研究生的科学培训，研究成果正在通过非学术渠道向更多的受众提供，从而提高公众对科学和科学方法的理解。通过访谈和参与观察，本项目调查了美国西北部以社区为基础的社会运动的四十年历史，以分析和概括由多种族民主倡导者组织的资源和网络，以促进公民参与和支持。方法包括访谈，民主倡导者的参与观察，以及对美国太平洋西北地区农村和城市地区档案数据的文本分析。通过对城市，农村和小城镇背景的多地点调查，以及来自不同时间尺度的整合数据，它询问是什么导致了人口变化的可变性和民主的可持续性。这项研究提高了对公民参与的驱动因素及其对确保可持续民主的贡献的社会科学理解。这个项目还探讨了宗教在这些运动中扮演的角色。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Social scientists have struggled with understanding how societies navigate transitions from a single-dominant ethnic group to a multiracial democracy. The United States provides an opportunity for improving our understanding this larger phenomenon, as current racial minorities are projected to become a majority of the population by 2042. Sustainable democracies depend on civic participation and community engagement. This research explores what variables contribute to the perceived vitality and effectiveness of civic participation. The project contributes to undergraduate and graduate student training in science and the research findings are being made accessible to a larger audience through non-academic channels, thereby improving the public’s understanding of science and the scientific method.Through interviews and participant observation, this project investigates a forty-year history of community-based social movements in the northwestern United States to analyze and generalize what resources and networks are marshaled by advocates of multi-racial democracy to promote civic engagement and support. Methods include interviews, participant observation among democracy advocates, and the textual analysis of archival data across rural and urban sites in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. Through a multi-sited investigation of urban, rural, and small-town contexts, along with integrating data from different time scales, it asks what contributes to variability in demographic change and the sustainability of democracy. The research improves social scientific understanding of the drivers of civic participation, and the contributions that it makes to ensuring sustainable democracy. This project also explores what role religion plays in these movements.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.