[URBANTH-L]Request for Communication

[SfAA]

Greetings:

One of our active members has assumed a position as Research Director  
for a project dealing with the handmade carpet industry in India,  
Nepal and Pakistan.  He wishes to make contact with other social  
scientists who are interested (or who have experience) in child  
labor, forced labor, child trafficking and related topics.  We would  
appreciate it if you would circulate the information below through  
your association networks where they will get the greatest  
circulation – whether print or digital newsletters.

Thank you for this courtesy.

Tom May
Executive Director
Society for Applied Anthropology




This notes a change in position and a request for communication from  
colleagues.

Art Hansen resigned from his university at the end of fall 2007  
semester to accept a fulltime position with Macro International, Inc.  
as the director of a three-year research project on children working  
in the export-oriented handmade-carpet industry in India, Nepal, and  
Pakistan. Dr. Hansen will be based in Atlanta and commute frequently  
to India, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Washington, DC area.

The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), Bureau  
of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), addresses the lack of reliable  
estimates of the prevalence of children currently working in the  
carpet industry as well as the working conditions for these children,  
especially the existence of the worst forms of child labor, including  
trafficking and bonded labor. The research will examine all aspects  
of the supply chain that processes the wool and silk used in handmade  
carpets as well as the actual production of the carpets by weaving,  
tufting, or hand-looming. The results of this quantitative and  
qualitative study will increase the knowledge base on child labor and  
inform policy-makers.

Dr. Hansen wants to hear from anthropologists and other social  
scientists with research experience in child labor, forced or bonded  
labor, child trafficking, and/or the handmade carpet industry in  
India, Nepal, or Pakistan. He wants to learn from colleagues about  
their methodological, theoretical, and substantive findings (trials,  
errors, and lessons learned).

His contact numbers are:
Art Hansen, Research Project Director
Macro International, Inc.
Art.hansen at macrointernational.com
Telephone (blackberry) 301-572-0827