Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Stranded Cosmopolitans: Imagined Belonging in an Out-Of-The-Way Brazilian City

博士论文研究改进补助金：搁浅的大都会人：想象中的巴西偏僻城市的归属感

• 批准号: 0961097
• 负责人: Donald Donham
• 金额: $ 1.98万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-03-15 至 2011-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0961097&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Improvement; Grant

University of California-Davis doctoral student, Timothy E. Murphy, supervised by Dr. Donald L. Donham, will undertake research on the growth of provincial urban culture outside of global cities and how this culture affects social divisions of race, class, and gender. The project will provide insight into significant changes taking place in provincial cities throughout the world, as previously isolated people are cognitively incorporated into larger worlds, even when those worlds remain outside their physical reach. The research is important for increasing our understanding of the diffusion and authority of new ideas.The research will be carried out on a network of middle-class Brazilians who live in a city located at the heart of the impoverished Brazilian Northeast. The study will focus on non-elite residents who are considered cosmopolitan, knowledgeable about sophisticated cultures from outside, despite the reality that poverty makes it impossible for them to travel. Data collection will begin with participant observation by accompanying informants throughout occupational, leisure, and consumer activities to 1) learn where and how they acquire their cultural knowledge; 2) assess the extent to which their daily practices and perceptions are linked to the world outside the city; and 3) analyze how they understand and operationalize dominant norms of race, class, and gender. The researcher will also conduct focus groups and surveys to collect comparative data on the dominant (non-cosmopolitan) local culture. The research is important because it will advance our understanding of how even disadvantaged people in remote locales may connect to and identify with distant places and ideas. This is significant beyond the local case of "stranded cosmopolitans" in provincial Brazil because it may be through similar personalized pathways that new concepts -- be they political, cultural, or religious -- diffuse from global centers into local lives. The project also contributes to the education and training of a social scientist.

由唐纳德·L·多纳姆（Donald L. Donham）指导的加利福尼亚大学戴维斯大学博士生蒂莫西·E·墨菲（Timothy E. Murphy）将对全球城市以外的省城市文化的增长进行研究，以及这种文化如何影响种族，阶级和性别的社会分裂。 该项目将洞悉全世界省级城市发生的重大变化，因为以前孤立的人在认知上将这些世界纳入了更大的世界，即使这些世界仍然超出了他们的身体影响力。这项研究对于增加我们对新思想的扩散和权威的理解非常重要。该研究将在居住在贫困巴西东北城市中心的中产阶级巴西人网络上进行。这项研究将集中于被认为是国际化的非精英居民，尽管贫困使他们无法旅行，但从外部就了解了复杂的文化。数据收集将从参与者的观察开始，这是由整个职业，休闲和消费者活动中的线人陪同的观察开始，以了解他们如何获得其文化知识； 2）评估其日常实践和看法与城市以外的世界有关的程度； 3）分析他们如何理解和运作种族，阶级和性别的主要规范。研究人员还将进行焦点小组和调查，以收集有关主要（非科学）本地文化的比较数据。这项研究很重要，因为它将促进我们对偏远地区中处于弱势群体的人的理解，并与遥远的地方和思想相连并认同。这超出了巴西省“滞留的国际大都会”的当地案例，因为它可能通过类似的个性化途径，无论是政治，文化还是宗教的新概念，都可以从全球中心扩散到当地生活。该项目还为社会科学家的教育和培训做出了贡献。