Doctoral Dissertation Research: Competing Donor Imaginaries: Gender, Development, and Comparative Aid Chains

博士论文研究：捐助者想象的竞争：性别、发展和比较援助链

• 批准号: 1904224
• 负责人: Jennifer Bair
• 金额: $ 1.42万
• 依托单位: University of Virginia Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-05-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1904224&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Competing; Donor

Many international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) around the world use the broad category of gender and development to describe their work, but the programming carried out under this umbrella term varies: some INGOS promote projects addressing health, education, and vocational skills, while others focus on reproductive health, economic empowerment, civil rights, and political participation. Numerous studies document the key role INGOs play in transmitting global norms and adapting those norms in local contexts. But more recent research has established that INGO programming is shaped by its local political economy. We know relatively little about how this variation affects the way that INGOs organize their operations and with what consequences for local stakeholders. This project explores how the practices, beliefs and priorities of INGOs are transmitted along aid chains, or the links through which programs travel from INGO headquarters to INGO country offices, and finally to implementing partners. Specifically, this project asks: (1) To what degree, and how, do aid chains organized by INGOs from different countries vary?; (2) How do implementing partners, such as employees in government ministries connected to these aid chains, understand and negotiate the priorities of the funding INGOs in local political and cultural context?; and, (3) To what extent does engagement with INGOs shape the self-understandings of these local practitioners, including their professional identities? The project will advance policy debates regarding the role of international development aid in promoting global civil society, and more specifically, the changing landscape of the development sector and the emergence of important new actors, with implications for how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. aid provided to non-U.S. countries.Data from this project are comprised of 100 in-depth interviews, 10 months of participant observation, and a textual analysis of 20 documents. It is collecting qualitative data on each organization within two aid chains. First, it conducts in-depth interviews in U.S. INGO headquarters organizations, as well as interviews in the U.S. bilateral agency. Then, through 10 months of fieldwork, the project collects ethnographic observation and interviews in three sites: the field office of a U.S.-based INGO; an INGO field office abroad; and an implementing partner organization of these offices. Finally, the project will conduct short-term observation and interviews in an INGO headquarters office abroad. To supplement interview and ethnographic findings, textual analysis of INGO documents will be completed. All data will be coded using ATLAS.TI and open coding techniques. This research design will enable the project to analyze how international development programs are articulated and communicated across the three links, from INGO headquarters and donors, to INGO field offices, to local partners. This project will extend sociological theories of global civil society by demonstrating the micro-level organizational and inter-organizational processes through which national priorities shape global norms. It will also help to inform sociological theories of development, particularly those that inform issues related to gender in the developing world.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.

世界各地的许多国际非政府组织 (INGO) 使用性别与发展这一广泛类别来描述其工作，但在这一总称下开展的规划各不相同：一些 INGOS 提倡解决健康、教育和职业技能的项目，而另一些则侧重于生殖健康、经济赋权、公民权利和政治参与。大量研究记录了国际非政府组织在传播全球规范并根据当地情况调整这些规范方面发挥的关键作用。但最近的研究表明，INGO 的规划是由当地政治经济决定的。我们对这种变化如何影响国际非政府组织组织运营的方式以及对当地利益相关者产生什么后果知之甚少。该项目探讨了国际非政府组织的做法、信念和优先事项如何沿着援助链传播，或者项目从国际非政府组织总部到国际非政府组织国家办事处，最后到执行伙伴的环节。具体而言，该项目提出以下问题：（1）不同国家的国际非政府组织组织的援助链有多大程度的差异以及如何差异？ (2) 执行伙伴，例如与这些援助链相关的政府部门的雇员，如何在当地政治和文化背景下理解和协商资助国际非政府组织的优先事项？ (3) 与国际非政府组织的接触在多大程度上塑造了这些当地从业者的自我理解，包括他们的职业身份？该项目将推动有关国际发展援助在促进全球公民社会方面的作用的政策辩论，更具体地说，发展部门不断变化的格局和重要新参与者的出现，对如何提高美国政府的效率和效力产生影响。向非美国国家提供的援助。该项目的数据包括 100 次深度访谈、10 个月的参与观察以及对 20 份文件的文本分析。它正在收集两个援助链内每个组织的定性数据。一是对美国INGO总部机构进行深度采访，同时对美国双边机构进行采访。然后，通过 10 个月的实地考察，该项目在三个地点收集了民族志观察和访谈：美国 INGO 的实地办事处； INGO 驻外办事处；以及这些办事处的执行伙伴组织。最后，项目将在国外的INGO总部办公室进行短期观察和采访。为了补充访谈和人种学调查结果，将完成 INGO 文件的文本分析。所有数据将使用 ATLAS.TI 和开放编码技术进行编码。这项研究设计将使该项目能够分析国际发展计划如何通过三个环节（从 INGO 总部和捐助者到 INGO 外地办事处，再到当地合作伙伴）进行阐述和沟通。该项目将通过展示国家优先事项塑造全球规范的微观组织和组织间过程，扩展全球公民社会的社会学理论。它还将有助于为发展的社会学理论提供信息，特别是那些为发展中国家的性别相关问题提供信息的社会学理论。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。