Project Details
Projekt
Aid, Mind, Hearts: A Longitudinal Study of Governance Interventions in Afghanistan (C09)
Subject Area
Political Science
Term
from 2010 to 2017
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 15088804
The project conducts a micro-level longitudinal study of the impact of military and civilgovernance interventions on peace- and state-building processes in North EastAfghanistan over the entire twelve year funding period of the SFB. The Afghan case isperhaps a "once in a lifetime opportunity" for researchers to observe in real time and inthe field the impact of external polices on state-building. The overarching question onwhich this project will shed light is whether and how the efforts of the internationalcommunity result in more security and economic development for the local population{-> SFB-Ziel 3: Effektivität und Legitimität von Governance). We also ask to what extentstate capacities are being built up. (-^ SFB-Ziel 2: Staatlichkeit als Kontextbedingung vonGovernance).In investigating these questions, we focus on the impact of military deployment anddevelopment aid, and we seek to understand under what conditions deterrence and/oracceptance increases the cooperation between local population and international actorswhich in itself is a precondition for the emergence of sustainable governance structures.We also investigate which idiosyncratic local structures are conducive to cooperation.Finally, we seek to capture rejecting or supportive discourses that frame the localunderstanding of the ongoing state-building mission (-^ SFB-Ziel 4: Aneignungs- undAbwehrprozesse).Capturing communication processes is important, because the legitimacy of statebuilding and military as well as civilian interventions are not only a function of resourcesand services made available as well .as demands placed and enforced. Crucially, in thelocal Afghan context the legitimacy of what is done by the state and the interveningactors depends on how the people "in the trenches" of Afghan society-i.e..in rural localcommunities - make sense of what is being done. The legitimacy of emerging statehoodis a semantic process that is influenced by communication processes both between thecommunities and the state / intervening organizations as well as within communities.and between communities and those forces that contest externally induced statebuilding.We will focus on processes on the micro-level (predominately district and community)because it is at this level at which macro-structures like states or external interventionsand systemic changes like state formation or development policies meet real humanbeings as the actors that may confront, accept or avoid them.In Afghanistan, more than in many other more or less state-administered places in theworld, success and failure of governance is not only an issue of putting the right policieson paper in country's capital and getting foreign Investments for these polices. Whilethis level of delivery, pointing at the so-called donor countries and organizations, isquite important for the perception of the sustainability of these policies, governance Iscrucially a function of how the emerging state institutions interact with localcommunities and to which extend they are accepted by these communities as (better,more legitimate, more effective) parts of problem-solving (security being one of themost pressing issues) In comparison to alternative external governance actors (I.e. theinsurgents) or endogenous local organizations.Hence, we take the local level as the point of departure for our micro-socialinvestigation into evolving social processes that are affected by external interventions(see 3.3.4).The backbone of a longitudinal study is consistent data over time. We selected 80communities, which are to be observed over twelve years. A first mass survey among2000 households in these 80 communities was conducted in spring 2007. A secondsurvey has been conducted In spring 2009. The survey will be repeated in 2011 and2013.Survey data will be supplemented by other primary data (on levels of development aid,security incidents and military deployment, etc.) and by secondary sources.Furthermore, a team of local researchers will provide semi-structured bi-annual reportson half of all surveyed communities In order to complement the survey data withqualitative background information on relevant developments affecting the respectivecommunities. Finally, two prolonged stays In the field (2011 and 2013, for a combinedlength of approximately 95 days) will allow us to Implement a range of qualitativeresearch methods on the spot. Most importantly, we will conduct focus groupinterviews, expert Interviews and ethnographic background interviews in the twoprovinces under, investigation. We intend to organize workshops with Afghan researchassistants that we will identify. If possible, from within the growing local researchcommunity at provincial universities, institutes and, in some cases, research focusedNGOs.We will use quantitative data, spatial data (based on GIS - Geographical InformationSystems) and qualitative data In order to triangulate our findings.The project contributes to the core question of the SFB. We Investigate governancestructures (In the first place: security governance), which emerge as a result of theInteraction between local Afghan and external actors. In line with the SFB overarchingquestions for phase two, we also Investigate the Impact of material resources ongovernance structures (in our case: aid; resource endowment) and the role ofapprehensive or supportive discourse related to new modes of governance (-^ SFB-Ziel6: Materielle Ressourcen und Govemance sowie SFB-Ziel 4: Aneignungs- und Abwehrprozesse).Finally, the project is highly policy relevant, as It provides robust data on one ofGermany's most salient foreign policy issues.
DFG Programme
Collaborative Research Centres
Applicant Institution
Freie Universität Berlin
Project Head
Professor Dr. Michael Daxner
