2006-2007 USCI Faculty Research Grants

Faculty Research Project Abstracts

Terry Cooper (School of Policy, Planning, and Development), Ann Crigler (Department of Political Science), and Yongheng Deng (School of Policy, Planning, and Development)
“The Role of Civic Engagement in Securing Property Rights: A Comparison of the US and China”
公民参与在产权维护中的作用——中美比较研究

The Civic Engagement Initiative has been invited by scholars at Renmin University to co-sponsor a conference on the emerging homeowners’ association (HOA) movement in China and Chinese homeowners’ efforts to establish property rights. The conference will be held in Beijing in June, 2007.  This conference will better prepare us to understand governance change in China with respect to property rights. We propose to send a delegation to participate in the conference and plan a research project, thus strengthening our ties with Chinese governance scholars and positioning scholars in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development and the USC College as international experts on place-based governance.

Joshua Goldstein (Department of History)
“International Recycling Trade in China”
中国的国际回收业

In 2005 the Beijing scrap scavenging and recycling sector processed approximately 1.5 million tons of post-consumer materials, generating US $270 million in profits and employing nearly 300,000 rural migrant laborers.  On a national scale, scrap scavenging and recycling in the PRC account for several million jobs and several billion dollars in profits annually.  Yet this huge sector has gone largely neglected by social scientists, both Chinese and foreign.  My greater research objective is to describe and analyze this scrap collecting and recycling sector from a variety of perspectives—historical, local, regional, and global; I will use the USCI grant to undertake fieldwork into the international aspects of the trade. 

Mark Harris (School of Cinematic Arts)   
“Documenting the Global City, Enhancing Cultural Understanding Between China and the USA”
纪录全球化城市，增进中美文化理解

This exchange program between USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and the Communication University of China brings together seven pairs of students to make brief documentaries on Los Angeles and Beijing as global cities. With guidance from faculty members from both Universities, each pair (one from USC, the other from CUC) must negotiate cultural differences both in front of and behind the camera. The films will be aired on TV both in China and the US and featured in an interactive installation at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Collaboration becomes a form of cultural understanding for students, teachers and institutions.

Merril Silverstein (Davis School of Gerontology and Department of Sociology) and Iris Chi (School of Social Work)
“Population Aging in China: Social, Health, and Policy Implications”
中国人口老龄化对社会，健康及政策的启示

This application requests a Collaborative Grant from USCI to expand on-going research activities underway at USC on the topic of aging in China. The aims of the award are to (1) expand on-going cross-school research collaborations at USC on the topic of population aging in China, (2) widen collaborative efforts with Chinese colleagues in the field of aging who are eager to strengthen their ties to USC, (3) provide graduate students with an intellectual and training infrastructure within which they can better develop their dissertation research on aging in China, and (4) sponsor a conference at USC that will bring together scholars from China and the U.S. to address issues pertaining to population aging in China, with the intention of producing an edited volume from the proceedings.