Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Quantification of Geography and Social Relations in Agrarian Reforms

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

The research supported by this award investigates how land and other resources are quantified in rural land reform projects. Land reforms reallocate access to primary productive resources. This reallocation critically depends on measurements and calculations that can vary significantly from one context to another. The researcher seeks to understand how these numbers are produced and how they are incorporated into governmental planning and design. The research is important because quantifications of all kinds, from national censuses to educational testing, have become a common part of contemporary life. This research focuses on the micro-processes by which the actual numbers are produced and who produces them. This information will help both policy makers who use numbers to make important decisions and citizens whose lives are affected by those decisions to better understand the complexities that can lie behind quantifications. The research will be undertaken by Sheng Long, a University of Michigan anthropology doctoral student, who is supervised by Dr. Erik Mueggler. Long will use rural land reform in China as a case study. This major national quantification project provides a rich and unique opportunity that would not be available in the United States, although the results of her study will be applicable to the U.S. Long will investigate how rural residents and other social actors measure and calculate agricultural resources. She has structured her research with two sets of queries. The first set is about numerical governance. How do social actors--farmers, bureaucrats, government staff, and surveyors--produce numbers, individually and cooperatively, in land reforms? The second set of questions is about the quantification of personhood and belongings. How do people manipulate numerical standards that generate social labeling? How do they calculate land contextually when they shift social roles from household to neighborhood to community? Long will collect data in three major sites: village households and agricultural fields; a GIS survey company; and familial and institutional archives. Findings from the research will contribute to interdisciplinary theorization of social category and relations through the lens of numbers. It also will provide data for policymakers worldwide who need to understand how local population are drawn into, affect, and are affected by large-scale quantification projects. 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.