What kinds of data will you collect (e.g. documents, newspaper articles, photos/videos/visual data, direct observation)? How will you collect your data (e.g. library research, archival research, survey, field research)? How will your data answer your project’s questions?
Deadline: March 29th Friday 5 pm
In researching for this project, I plan on using online journal articles, newspaper articles, and books to explain the background of the Pinochet reform. Additionally, since I’m planning on doing a podcast, I will need to find audio clips. A difficulty I could face is that these clips could be primarily in Spanish; however, my freshmen year roommate is Chilean and, if necessary, could help with translation. Additionally, I’m thinking about interviewing her for my podcast and asking her questions about how her family looks back upon and talks about the Pinochet regime. She has some interesting stories to tell about how her family housed (and hid) a famous Chilean musician during the 70s that I think could add some color to my podcast.
Two books I plan on using as focal points of my research are Race and the Chilean Miracle: Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Indigenous Rights by Patricia Richards and Life In Debt: Times of Care and Violence in Neoliberal Chile by Clara Han. I have access to both of these texts through the library. Other texts that could be helpful in my research are The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, Chile: The Pinochet Decade: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Boys, and The Overthrow of Allende and the Politics of Chile, 1964- 1976by Paul E. Sigmund. Additionally, New York Times articles such as “Free-Market Lessons from Chile’s Chicago Boys,” and “The Free Market and Chile; an aborted economic lesson,” provide interesting perspectives on the topic that differ from academic journal articles or books.
I believe the research on Pinochet, Allende, and the economic reforms in Chile will be relatively straightforward; however, I think it will be more difficult to try and understand how the ideas themselves circulated from the US to Chile. I think much of this research will come from primary sources or newspaper articles. To conclude, I will formulate my own opinions as to the success of the ‘Chilean miracle’. I will base this conclusion on a combination of firsthand accounts of Chile post the Pinochet regime, as well as overall statistics that demonstrate the more tangible effects of the extreme economic reforms on the nation.
Thanks for this reflection, Sydney. Your research plan sounds good. I think the books on Chicago Boys that you listed could help you understand the flow of ideas from the US to Chile (I have not read those books though).
I guess your project will address three major questions: how did the neoliberal ideas travel from the US to Chile? How did these ideas shape the economic policies in Chile? and finally what were the consequences of the policies for the Chilean society? Let me know if you think that these questions do not fully characterize your project.
Also, if you are going to interview your friend, we might need an IRB approval for that interview. I will contact you about this soon.