This Minority Post-Doctoral Research and Training Fellowship will take place in Chile with the sponsorship of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and under the guidance of Dr. Rolando Franco who is ECLAC's director of the Social Development Division. The research will be focused on an anthropological analysis of people's agency and social capital within the context of Chile Solidario, a poverty alleviation program being implemented by Chile's Ministry of Planning and Cooperation (MIDEPLAN). Current anthropological studies view poverty within the political, economic and ideological contexts shaping capitalistic processes and state activity. This study will be framed by three interconnected anthropological approaches to the study of poverty: economic polarization, political demobilization, and market triumphalism, all of which are present in the neoliberal model that postulates the economic, social and moral value of competition and unregulated markets, and the role of the state in promoting free market. The main goal of the proposed research is to explore how the agency and the social capital of families participating in Chile Solidario are affected by the program. These two interrelated theories are explored through various research methodologies. Data collection will take place in two communities and will include: (1) information about the historical, political, economic, and organizational aspects of each community through the combination of document reviews and key informant interviews; (2) semi-structured interviews with families, case managers, and other individuals identified by families as being relevant to them in terms of their survival; (3) community asset mapping; and (4) tracking of enrollment rates, number of families inserted in the labor market, and services provided to families in the selected communities through the program's monitoring database. The proposed research study will be significant in that: (1) it will emphasize the importance of considering and building on the social capital and capacity for agency of the poor in the implementation of poverty alleviation programs. This is significant considering that ECLAC is influential in the development of social policies throughout Latin America; (2) by selecting two distinctive study sites in terms of human, social, cultural, and economic resources the study will provide information about human and cultural variation, which will be reflected in families' differential responses to Chile Solidario; and (3) it will shed light on the implementation and impact of poverty alleviation programs within a neo-liberal model. The training objectives are: (1) to acquire an in-depth understanding of how existing economic tendencies and globalization are resulting in increased poverty; and (2) to gain a deeper understanding of poor people's agency and social capital in dealing with their financial condition. These objectives will be achieved through: (a) Guidance and mentoring from Dr. Franco and a multidisciplinary team of professionals that includes anthropologists, sociologists, and economists (ECLAC 2000); (b) Participation in the multiple national and international seminars and workshops organized by ECLAC to address issues related to social and economic development in Latin America and the world; and (c) Implementation of the proposed research project.
