The Chinese "Scientific Community" at Century's End: Definition, Leadership, Changing Social Roles, and International Significance

自20世纪80年代初以来，中国的科学技术体制经历了一系列的改革和重组，新的国家研发政策和计划已经出台，主要承诺已经在科学研究生教育，并建立了广泛的国际联系。&这些年来涌现出来的科技人才是我国在世纪末面临的重大挑战的核心人才。就国际影响而言，这些挑战包括全球经济的挑战;管理经济快速增长带来的严重环境后果;以及保障国家安全。本项目旨在更好地了解中国科技人才库的集体特征，其满足快速变化的中国需求的能力，其在下一个世纪的预期作用，以及这些特征如何与西方的"科学共同体"概念相关联。该项目的工作首先系统地回顾了20世纪世纪中国为建立现代科学机构所做的许多努力，包括毛泽东时代（1949 - 1976年）的努力，然后转向审查毛泽东后的改革政策，因为这些政策影响了职业生活和社区意识的发展。 这项工作主要涉及中文和英文的二级文献综述。在这一初步工作之后，该项目将开始从规模、学科构成、培训水平和模式、制度环境、交流模式和社会分层以及世界主义程度等方面界定和描述中国技术人员的现状。这项工作将审查政府的统计资料，以及中国政策分析家和STS研究人员的分析报告，并包括对中国和美国的中国科学家的采访。研究的最后一部分将考察科学家的经济和政治作用。改革政策给中国的研究环境带来了强大的商业激励，一些观察家认为这扭曲了科学使命，破坏了社区建设。其他改革政策提高了科学家的政治地位，增强了科学家在政策制定中的作用。利用文献资料和访谈，该项目将探讨科学与经济之间以及科学与国家之间联系的变化性质。尽管中国在国际上的重要性越来越大，但近十年来，中国的科学发展一直没有重大的英语研究。因此，这项研究很可能会吸引相当多的注意力，从那些寻求了解科学和技术在中国的未来的作用，并从那些有兴趣在当代非西方环境中理解“科学共同体”的概念。中国拥有大量的技术人才，但过去错误的政策阻止了这些人才成为一个连贯和有效的社区。结果，高质量的研究生教育和科学研究受到阻碍，技术创新受到挫折，重大的国家发展决策在没有合理的技术判断的情况下做出，造成了削弱经济和环境的后果。自20世纪70年代末以来，所采取的政策旨在纠正这些错误，并允许建立一个充满活力的科学共同体。该研究提出，在评估这个共同体建设过程现在的状况及其未来的前景时，中国的专业学生、STS专业人员和寻求了解中国未来进程的政策共同体将感兴趣。

Since the early 1980s, China's science and technology system has been subject to a series of reforms and-reoganizations, new national R & D policies and programs have been introduced, major commitments have been made-to graduate education in the sciences, and extensive international ties have been established. The technical personnel emerging from these years represents the core human resource-pool for the critical challenges China faces at century's end. In terms of international salience, these include the-challenges of the global economy; managing-the severe environmental consequences of rapid economic growth; and providing for national security. This project seeks to provide a better understanding of the collective character of-the pool of Chinese technical personnel, its capabilities for meeting the needs of a rapidly changing China, its expected-role in the next century, and how these characteristics pertain to Western conceptions of a `scientific community.`--Work on the project begins with a systematic review of the many efforts to build modern institutions for science in-China during the 20th century, including those of the Mao era (1949-1976), and shifts to an examination of-the post-Mao reform policies as these have influenced professional life and the development of a sense of community. This work primarily will involve reviews of secondary literature in Chinese and English. After this initial work, the-project will begin to define and characterize the current population of Chinese technical personnel in terms of its-size, disciplinary composition, levels and modes of training, institutional environment, patterns of communication and-social stratification, and degrees of cosmopolitanism. This work will review governmental statistical sources-and analytical reports by Chinese policy analysts and STS researchers, and include interviews with Chinese scientists both in-China and the United States.--The final part of the study will examine the economic and political roles of the scientists. Reform-policies have introduced powerful commercial incentives into the Chinese research environment which some-observers see as distorting of scientific missions and disruptive to community building. Other reform policies have-enhanced the political standing of scientists and increased scientists' roles in policy making. Using both documentary-materials and interviews, the project will explore the changing nature of the linkages between science and economy,-and between science and state.--In spite of China's growing international importance, there have been no major studies in English of scientific-development in China for almost a decade. This study is therefore likely to attract considerable attention-from those seeking to understand the roles of science and technology in China's future and from those interested in-understanding the concept of `scientific community` in contemporary non-Western settings. China has a large pool-of technical talent, but misguided policies in the past prevented this talent from becoming a coherent and functioning-community. As a result, quality graduate education and scientific research were retarded, technological innovation-was frustrated, and major national development decisions were made - with debilitating economic and environmental-consequences - without sound technical judgments. The policies introduced since the late 1970s have been intended-to correct these errors and to allow for the building of a vibrant scientific community--The study proposed, in assessing where this process of community building now stands and what its future prospects-are, will be of interest to professional students of China, to STS professionals, and to policy communities which seek-to understand China's future course.-