Print VersionA Sampling of CIBER-Funded Research
Fall 2004 Spring 2005 Fall 2005 Spring 2006 Fall 2006 Spring 2007 Spring 2008
Visit to University of California-Berkeley’s Gump Research Station on Moorea, French Polynesia
Jean Hudson, assistant professor of anthropology, UW-Milwaukee
The global relevance of the economic potential of fish as a protein source has generated concerns about the sustainability of world fisheries and modern environmental health risks associated with pollution and fish consumption. This project links traditional ecological knowledge of native Pacific Islanders in French Polynesia with modern environmental health and environmental justice issues as they relate to fish consumption. Thus far long-term studies of this kind have focused on the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, leaving the Pacific Ocean understudied. CIBER support was used for travel to UC-Berkeley’s Gump Research Station in French Polynesia to meet with the representative of the local Tahitian community group, Te Pu Atiti’a, and to establish initial contacts with local fishing families. The viability of a study-abroad program to engage UWM students in laboratory and field work at the research station was also evaluated.
Developing a Contextualized Theory of Emerging Technologies: Nanotech in China
Joan Fujimura, professor of sociology and director of the Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, UW-Madison Ricky Leung, Ph.D. student in sociology, UW-Madison
As nanotechnology purports to revolutionize biomedicine, computing, energy production and many other branches of science and technology, many analysts also suggest that nanotechnology can lead to important social and economic consequences. This project uses the case of nanotechnology to examine the research and development (R&D) infrastructure for high-tech development in China. Currently, there is little knowledge about how Chinese actors, including governments, scientists and venture capitalists, link scientific development with economic concerns. In the short run, this research seeks to establish a baseline framework for understanding nanotechnology R&D in China. In the long term, this project will help to explain the relationship between a rapidly and unevenly developing economy and society, on the one hand, and technological development, on the other.
Globalization and Natural Resource Depletion in Developing Countries
Ian Coxhead, professor of agricultural and applied economics, UW-Madison Muqun Li, Ph.D. student in agricultural and applied economics, UW-Madison
This research will address the implications that arise for parts of the developing world due to China’s rapid growth. The increasingly close integration between China and world markets is rapidly transforming patterns of production and trade in China’s closest neighbors in Southeast Asia. Relatively resource-abundant economies in this region are predicted to lose comparative advantage in many of the labor-intensive manufacturing activities that have underpinned recent export and job growth and sustained economic diversification. They will also gain comparative advantage in natural resource products, largely due to China’s growing demand. These trends will increase incentives to exploit and export forestry, mining, fisheries, and agricultural products. This research explores the consequences of global shocks, including China’s growth and the anticipated effects of Doha Round reforms, for resource-rich industrializing economies such as Indonesia and Vietnam.