Dissertation Research: Informating, Eco-Environmental Governance in Beijing, China: Global, Local, and Technoscientific Influences Since 1979

这项科技论文改进基金要求美国国家自然科学基金资助中国(2004年1-6月)在中科院生态环境科学研究中心的人种学田野工作。通过民族志访谈和参与者观察，这项研究将致力于回答一个主要问题：自1979年以来，中国监测和模拟其城市环境的科学技术能力是如何发展的，并反过来形成了政策倡议和指令？这个问题的答案将从以下三个子问题中得出：1)国际协议、压力和合作如何影响中国在环境信息系统方面的能力和专业知识？2)当地的政治、社会和文化需求如何构建中国环境信息系统的开发和使用？3)科学技术发展如何塑造中国环境信息系统的设计和使用？这个项目的学术价值在于它对中国区域研究、技术史、环境领域的人类学研究以及环境治理的政策分析做出了贡献。它将产生关于环境领域动态的原始经验材料和理论观点，以及信息系统的发展如何支持和推动政策关切。随着研究的进展，这项研究将通过在污染研究人员和监管机构之间传播结果而产生广泛的影响。污染研究人员和监管机构的反馈将使调查结果得到验证和完善，同时也会影响污染研究人员和监管机构的工作方式。中国作为21世纪环境治理的关键遗址的重要意义，在中国内外都得到了广泛的认可。

This Science and Technology Dissertation Improvement Grant requests NSF funds to support ethnographic fieldwork in China (January-June 2004) based at the Chinese Academy of Science's Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences. Through ethnographic interviews and participant observation, the study will work to answer one main question: Since 1979, how has China's scientific and technological capacity to monitor and model its urban environment developed, and in turn shaped policy initiatives and directives? An answer to this question will be derived from the following three sub-questions: 1) How have international agreements, pressures and collaborations influenced China's capacity and expertise in environmental information systems? 2) How have local political, social, and cultural needs structured development and use of environmental information systems in China? 3) How have scientific and technical developments shaped the design and use of environmental information systems in China? The intellectual merit of this project is its contribution to Chinese area studies, to the history of technology, to anthropological studies of the environmental field, and to policy analysis of environmental governance. It will produce original empirical material and theoretical perspectives on the dynamics of the environmental field, and on how development of information systems both support and are driven by policy concerns. The study will have a broad impact through the circulation of results among pollution researchers and regulators as the study progresses. Feedback from pollution researchers and regulators will enable validation and refinement of findings while also influencing how pollution researchers and regulators do their work. The significance of China as a key site of environmental governance in the 21st century is widely acknowledged both within and outside China.