Fellowships: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
Jay Dautcher, Anthropology: Identity and Social Change in a Uighur Neighborhood in Xinjiang, China. This dissertation is an ethnographic study of one Chinese ethnic minority, the Uighur of Xinjiang, particularly in the suburban neighborhoods of Yining/Ghulja in the Ili River Valley. Research focuses on the period of the mid-1990s, on the relatioship between changing Uighur identity and the economic, political, and social transformations brought on by China's embrace of marketization. Materials used in the dissertation include Uighur personal narrative, folklore, and popular culture, as well as personal observations collected during 22 months of participant-observation field research conducted between 1993 and 1996.
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Adrienne Edgar, History: The Making of a Soviet Nation: Nationality Policy, Culture, and Identity in Turkmenistan, 1924-1939. This research focuses on "nation building" and "socialist construction" in the Soviet Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan between 1924 and 1939. Beginning in the early 1920s, the Soviet leadership implemented policies in Central Asia aimed aat destroying Muslim social, religious, and cultural institutions and constructing a new Soviet culture and society in their place. Soviet policies also undermined traditional sources of identity by creating new national-territorial republics and promoting national cultures within them. The Turkmen were a traditionally nomadic Muslim people whose social structure was based primarily on kinship. Lacking national consciousness, a clearly defined territory, or a native proletariat, the Turkmen population offered a seemingly unpromising foundation on which to build a new socialist society and a national-territorial republic. This dissertation consists of two main sections. The first, on Soviet "nation building" and its effects on the evolution of Turkmen identity, includes chapters on the creation of the Turkmen republic in the national delimitation of Central Asia, the promotion of an indigenous elite, and the codification of a Turkmen written language. The second section, on Soviet attempts to "modernize" Turkmen society and bring it into the socialist mainstream, includes chapters on the struggle to replace descent group loyalties with class consciousness, the assault on religious and customary practices, and the effort to reach the population through Soviet schools, mass organizations, and the press.
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Marc Howard, Political Science: Privatized Societies: The Leninist Legacy and Civil Society in Eastern Germany and Russia. Mr. Howard's dissertation seeks to understand and explain why, less than a decade following the dramatic and revolutionary uprisings that seemed to demonstrate the "triumph of civil society" over Communism, citizen participation in public and voluntary organizations in post-Communist societies is extremely weak. Unlike the many single-case studies and purely theoretical analyses of this surprising outcome, he is applying a common empirical methodology, by means of a structured, focused comparison of two "most different" case studies: Eastern Germany and Russia. His analysis emphasizes two main factors: 1) the persistence of the Leninist legacy, which refers to a combination of vibrant private social networks and strong mistrust of most public institutions; and 2) the disappointment with post-Communist developments, in which, despite recognized material improvements, most people feel disillusioned with a political and economic system that they feel has deceived them, and that has not come close to matching their initial expectations from the time of upheaval in 1989-91.
In addition to secondary analysis of existing research on both the organizational level (studies of voluntary organizations and the NGO sector) and the individual level (public opinion surveys), the primary empirical research for this project consists of intensive open-ended interviews with approximately 30 ordinary citizens of each country, divided evenly between Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia, and (East) Berlin and Leipzig in Eastern Germany. These qualitative findings will be supplemented and complemented by the results of a broader representative survey to be conducted in each country in the late fall of 1998, in which (funded by the National Science Foundation) he will subcontract 15 closed-ended questions that will be based on the findings and analysis of his intensive interviews. His analysis pays close attention to variations within each population, particularly generational differences, and to the effects of the ongoing socialization process. Overall, the goal of this project is to develop a more rigorous and rich understanding of the role that the Leninist legacy and civil society play in the democratization of post-Communist Europe.
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Evan Lieberman, Political Science: Identity and Sacrifice: The political economy of the tax state in Brazil and South Africa. This project considers the role of identity-based political cleavages as a mediating factor in the state's ability to collect tax. Despite quite similar patterns of economic development and social inequality in Brazil and South Africa, the salience of political identities has differed radically in these countries. A key hypothesis is that the varied construction and relevance of race, ethnicity, region, and nation has meant that the challenge of financing the modern state has been framed in nationally distinctive ways. The nature of political contests and resulting settlements has produced divergent patterns of state finance. Mr. Lieberman will explore the historical development of those identities, and how they have influenced the development of extractive institutions in the 20th century in light of other rival hypotheses. In particular, he considers the nature of political struggles and revenue production associated with three similar junctures of state development: participation in the Second World War; the expansion of internal security and state modernization during the mid-1960s, and the process of democratic transition and attempts at redistribution since 1990. In addition, he will consider the impact of identity on tax sacrifice at the individual level during the current period through analysis of survey data from the two countries. His comparative field research involves conducting a series of in-depth interviews, extensive historical research, and cooperation on national surveys to be carried out in both countries.
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Samuel Van Leer, Political Science: The Politics of Linguistic Identity and Constitutional Change in Belgium and Canada. Mr. Van Leer's dissertation focuses on the consequences of constitutional and institutional choices for inter-ethnic accommodation in two linguistically divided, advanced Western democracies: Belgium and Canada. The project has three central purposes. The first is to explain the timing of the emergence of ethno-linguistic identity politics in the two cases. The second is to account for the results of constitutional negotiation rounds prompted by the new politics of ethno-linguistic identity. The third is to evaluate the consequences of the particular constitutional and institutional choices made for inter-ethnic accommodation. Ond of the chief aims of the study is to assess the comparative utility of the federal model for resolving ethno-linguistic difference. Both countries have seen a rise in lingusitic-based tensions and concomitant constitutional "crises" in the last thirty years in spite of federalization. Evidence from the cases suggests that a federal format may not be superior to a consociational one for preserving unity in diversity. If not carefully crafted, a federal system may indeed provide sufficiently independent institutional arenas for separatist forces to build additional political resources and support.
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