This dissertation project will support research of CoPI Andrew Gerkey, Rutgers University, to investigate the cultural and economic dimensions of cooperative action regarding resource use and allocation among the Koryak of Kamchatka, Russia. The researcher will compare the State Farm (Sovkhoz) and the Local Commons (Obshchina) organizations by synthesizing data gathered from ethnographic methods (participant observation, interviews, and surveys) with methods more broadly utilized in political science and economics (demographic/economic surveys and economic games) in order to better understand collective and cooperative action in this diverse, Post Soviet, context.
