任务型学术写作unit 1 Writing Up a Research Proposal.ppt

3. Read the research proposal on 24 and complete the table.  Purpose of the research Literature review The overall objective is to understand how severe water scarcity affects reciprocal exchange relationships and social relationships in a marginal urban setting. The existence and quality of intracommunity ties has long been recognized as a factor that determines how conflicts evolve over scarce resources and other threats (Simmel 1904 [1955], Coser 1956, Mack 1965). Hypothesis H1. Generalized reciprocal exchanges will occur more frequently in the wet season than in the dry season. H2. Social interactions will occur more frequently in the wet season than in the dry season. H3. During the dry season, households with more water will engage in more generalized reciprocal exchanges than will households with less water. Research Plan The research will proceed in two phases. During the first phase, I will select a 60-household purposive sample, create and test interview protocols, choose key informants, and train a research assistant. The first phase will lay the groundwork for the second, so that I will be prepared to complete a baseline assessment of exchange and social interactions before the dry season begins in May. During the second phase, I will conduct in-depth interviews with key informants and four ethnographic interviews with each household in the sample. At the end of the second phase, I will conduct a series of experimental economic games to determine the norms of trust and reciprocity in the community. Significance This research will contribute to two areas of social science inquiry: urban anthropology and environment-conflict theory. The research will be the first study to examine if and how urban social support relationships are transformed by severe water scarcity. Understanding how reciprocal exchange and social ties are strained during periods of severe deprivation will contribute to efforts to understand the dynamics involved in c