Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Ethnographic Study of National Security Policies at the Local Level

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

One responsibility of any government is to provide for domestic security. A significant challenge in doing so effectively is that new policies and supporting technologies often turn out to have differential effects at different social structural levels particularly in very heterogenous populations. Some of these effects are unintended and may produce unanticipated local responses. The research supported by this award will use a case study approach and the intensive methodologies of anthropology to examine closely how and why this happens. The research will help illuminate the inner complex structures of contemporary society, which will contribute to improved social scientific understanding. Findings from the research also will help policy makers bridge the gap between the goals of security reforms and local-level consequences and experiences. The research will be carried out by University of Massachusetts anthropology doctoral student, Ana Del Conde, under the supervision of Dr. Jacqueline Urla. The researcher will undertake 12 months of research in Mexico where the Merida Initiative, a security reform implemented in 2006 to combat organized crime and drug trafficking, provides an appropriate research opportunity because it has been in place long enough to trace out its local effects. In order to produce a richer and more complete in-depth understanding, the researcher has narrowed her focus to a particular sub-population, indigenous women in the state of Michoacan. Using a mixed-methods approach, she will collect data on how the Initiative is being locally experienced, and how it interacts with other strategies that people have developed locally to protect themselves. The research has a cross-sectional design. Data will be collected in three communities through informal and semi-structured interviews, participant observation, free-listing workshops, and photovoice workshops to produce qualitative and quantitative data, field notes, interview transcripts, and visual narratives. Research results will be shared with multiple stakeholders including research participants, local government officials, and community members who seek to improve the effectiveness of security reforms. Results also will contribute to the growing body of social scientific theoretical work on conflict and security. 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.