City University of New York doctoral student, Kareem Rabie, with the guidance of Dr. Michael Blim, will undertake research on the possibilities for economic development in a context of state absence and parastatal organizational presence. The focus of the research will be a comparison between local entrepreneurs who receive foreign development assistance and those who do not.
The research will be carried out among international aid workers in two sites in the West Bank. The researcher will employ a mix-methods approach, including ethnographic interviews, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and textual analyses of aid materials. He will sample 200 entrepreneurs, 100 in each site, stratified by source of development aid. The data will be analyzed at multiple political and economic scales. This approach will allow an analysis of the links between individuals, economies, international organizations, and the state.
The research is important because it will contribute to both theory of, and policy for, state building and economic development in a stateless environment. Funding this research also supports the education of a graduate student.
