Rural Tibetan Transformation: A Case Study of Chuma Village

PhD RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Contemporary Rural Tibetan Transformation in Amdo: The Case of Chuma Village

BACKGROUND

World development literature features discussions of social transformation from varying perspectives (Mittleman 2000, Moore and Gould 2003). Research on urban transformation (Moore and Gould 2003, Hubacek et al. 2009), for example, has drawn attention to aspects of well-being and socioeconomic changes in rural communities, raising questions of cultural identity and socioeconomic challenges faced by local individuals. Moore and Gould (2003) described urban settlement offers lure of better employment, education, health care, and culture. However, rapid and often unplanned urban growth results in poverty, environmental degradation

(2009) illustrated China’s economic growth is shifting from a predominantly agriculture to a growing share of industrial and service sector. For example, in Beijing; China’s capital city has proved that many urban dwellers achieved a good quality of life. Consequently, the authors believe that the ability to construct sustainable social development in the communities is a key challenge for China. Likewise, Mittleman (2000) explains that globalization is not a single and unified phenomenon, but a syndrome of process and activities. In addition, globalization offers major benefits, including gains in productivity, technological advances, higher standards of living, more jobs, access to broader consumer products, low cost, dissemination of information and knowledge and reduction from poverty etc. Adversely, globalization has downside implications such as various cultural losses, rise of new hybrid forms of traditions, and additional socioeconomic shortcomings. Mittelman’s (2000) discussion of global development and urbanization has received attention from scholars such as Moore and Gould (2003) who note that more than half of the world’s population now live in urban settlement as the world becomes increasingly urban in nature. The authors believe that cities play a vital role and urban settlements offer opportunities for education, employment, social services, and better health care, while also suffering from such shortcomings as unemployment, marginalization, air

There have been few such studies in Qinghai Tibetan areas. Rka phug Rdo rje don grub and CK Stuart (2013) and Rdo rje bkra shis (2012) have done ethnographic work on rural Amdo communities, but their studies do not approach the level of detail I wish to bring to my dissertation. The study planned here will significantly add to the development literature by closely examining local livelihood and socioeconomic activities that are having unprecedented impact on traditional subsistence, lifestyle, and, indeed, almost every aspect of local culture. My research will examine pertinent linkages between social transformation and livelihood, health, and the enforcement of education policies. I also wish to examine how grass root project and development work might address both cause and outcomes of social transformation to improve socioeconomic shortcomings and improve the general well-being of local individuals.

Three key objectives structure this study:

1.To reveal how Chuma Village has changed over the last five decades and the forces that explain it.

2.To analyze local insights and perspectives of how local people perceive development and the implications of