Doctoral Dissertation Research: Property Rights and Social Mobilization Along an Amazonian Highway

博士论文研究：亚马逊公路沿线的财产权和社会动员

• 批准号: 0902748
• 负责人: Altha Cravey
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-08-15 至 2011-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0902748&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Property; Rights

The Brazilian government plans to pave the Santarem-Cuiaba highway (BR 163), the only road that traverses the Brazilian Amazon from south to north. This decision has reignited competition for property rights in a region known for its ambiguous land-tenure system and long history of violent conflict over land and resources. The impetus to pave the road is to facilitate the transport of soy harvests from the south of Brazil to the Amazon River for export. In response to the promised paving initiatives, industrial soy farmers have moved into this region and are now competing with smallholders, commercial loggers, and ranchers for the best land near the road. The Brazilian government has attempted to quell land conflict and facilitate sustainable development along the road in this "frontier" region by redrawing property lines through land reform, creating a new mosaic of conservation and resource extraction areas, and surveying rural property boundaries. Conflict over property rights along the road persists, however. This doctoral dissertation research project will investigate the ways that these efforts to impose a formal land-tenure system interact with practices of claiming land and defining property on the ground. Through policy analysis, archival research, participatory mapping and ethnography, the doctoral candidate will examine the perspectives of actors from multiple interest groups involved in land conflict in order to understand how these different actors understand property rights and attempt to mobilize for and legitimize their claims to land.Debates about road building in the Amazon have tended to focus on the relationship between roads and deforestation, calling for improved governance in order to ameliorate the environmental effects of road building. This research endeavors to broaden this discussion to address the complex social and political issues that can be obscured by a narrow focus on road building's environmental effects. By exploring the complex system of governance that emerges through the intersection of formal law and actions of multiple actors with different interests, power relationships and regional imaginaries, the findings of this research are expected to demonstrate that the Amazon frontier is not simply a lawless place whose issues can be resolved through better legislation and monitoring. By exploring complex systems of governance in place and how they work, this study will contribute to debates about the relationship between formal state structures and informal economic, social, and political practices. The project's results also will help to explain why efforts to address land-tenure issues in the region repeatedly fail, and they will shed light on the types of measures that might begin to alleviate the uneven effects of land conflict. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

巴西政府计划铺设圣塔伦-库亚巴高速公路（BR 163），这是唯一一条从南到北横贯巴西亚马逊的公路。 这一决定重新引发了该地区对产权的争夺，该地区以其模糊的土地保有权制度和长期存在的土地和资源暴力冲突而闻名。 铺设道路的目的是为了方便将巴西南部的大豆收获物运输到亚马逊河进行出口。 为了响应承诺的铺路计划，工业大豆种植者已经迁入该地区，现在正在与小农、商业伐木者和牧场主竞争道路附近最好的土地。 巴西政府试图通过土地改革重新划定财产界限、创建新的保护和资源开采区以及调查农村财产边界，以平息土地冲突并促进这一“边境”地区沿线的可持续发展。 然而，沿线产权冲突依然存在。 本博士论文研究项目将研究这些强制实施正式土地保有制度的努力与土地所有权和土地财产定义实践之间的相互作用。 通过政策分析、档案研究、参与式制图和民族志，博士生将研究参与土地冲突的多个利益集团的参与者的观点，以了解这些不同的参与者如何理解产权，并试图动员他们的主张并使其合法化。关于亚马逊地区道路建设的争论往往集中在道路与森林砍伐之间的关系上，呼吁改善治理以改善道路建设对环境的影响。 本研究致力于扩大讨论范围，以解决复杂的社会和政治问题，这些问题可能因狭隘地关注道路建设对环境的影响而被掩盖。 通过探索正式法律和具有不同利益、权力关系和地区想象的多个参与者的行动交叉而出现的复杂治理系统，这项研究的结果预计将证明亚马逊边境不仅仅是一个无法无天的地方，问题可以通过更好的立法和监督来解决。通过探索现有的复杂治理体系及其运作方式，本研究将有助于关于正式国家结构与非正式经济、社会和政治实践之间关系的辩论。 该项目的结果还将有助于解释为什么解决该地区土地保有权问题的努力屡屡失败，并且它们将揭示可能开始缓解土地冲突的不平衡影响的措施类型。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。