Making National Science Policy

科学和政策是如何相互影响的？例如，政策重点是如何影响科学研究的？反过来，科学发现如何被用来证明特定的政策和法律是合理的？对于研究政策的社会和行为科学家以及政策制定者和公众来说，这些都是核心问题。这个项目通过探索科学知识是如何创造的，以及在人口科学和政策这一关键的新领域中科学决策意味着什么，来解决这些问题。这一领域特别重要，因为它为家庭的形成和构成创造了动力。自从独生子女政策出台以来，中国出生时的男女比例变得越来越男性化。女孩的失踪给找不到妻子的男性带来了越来越大的危机。自2005年以来，围绕这一问题出现了一个新的人口科学与政策领域。出于对社会稳定的深切担忧，中央政府及其专家顾问现在将这些单身汉定性为对党创建和谐社会目标的潜在暴力威胁。这样的政策框架至关重要：一旦被嵌入到公共政策中，它们可以重塑科学研究议程、法律以及个人对自己和他人的看法。在首席调查员对影响家庭构成的政策的长期研究的基础上，该项目在2011-13年期间进行了14个月的研究，旨在了解这一新兴的科学治理领域。运用科学技术研究理论、民族志和文献研究方法，该项目包括科学制定和政策制定的民族志两部分。首席调查员将调查参与科学研究和政策制定的利益相关者。通过研究科学家和政策制定者的微观实践，这个项目调查了国家层面的科学政策是如何制定的。该项目的更广泛影响阐明了科学决策的本质以及科学和法律的共同构成。专家知识如何为政策动态提供信息，对制定什么政策以及如何治理一个国家具有重大影响。对人口科学和政策的关注提供了对更广泛地影响家庭形成的政策的洞察。最后，该项目有助于在美国和中国之间建立网络，并增加了对科学技术政策的社会和行为科学研究。

How does science and policy mutually influence each other? How do policy priorities, for example, shape scientific research? In turn, how are scientific findings used to justify particular policies and laws? These are central questions for social and behavioral scientists who study policy as well as for policy makers and the public. This project grapples with these questions by exploring how scientific knowledge is created and what scientific policy-making means in a critical new domain of population science and policy. This area is particularly important since it creates incentives for the formation and constitution of families. Since the introduction of the one-child policy, China's ratio of males to females at birth has been growing ever more masculine. The disappearance of girls has led to what has been framed as a growing crisis for men who are unable to find wives. Since 2005, a new field of population science and policy has been emerging around this problem. Deeply worried about social stability, the national government and its expert advisors are now framing the bachelors as potentially violent menaces to the party's goal of creating a harmonious society. Policy framings such as these are critically important: once embedded in public policy, they can remake scientific research agendas, laws, and individuals' perceptions of themselves and others. Building on the Principle Investigator's long-term research on policies that impact the constitution of families, this project involves 14 months of research during 2011-13 aimed at understanding this emerging field of scientific governance. Using Science and Technology Studies theories and ethnographic and documentary research methods, the project has two parts, ethnographies of science-making and policy-making. The Principle Investigator will investigate the stakeholders involved in both scientific research and policy making. By studying the micro-practices of both scientists and policy-makers, this project investigates how science policy is made at the national level. The project's broader impact illuminates the nature of scientific policy-making and the mutual constitution of science and law. How expert knowledge informs policy dynamics has substantial effects on what policies are created and how a nation is governed. The focus on population science and policy provides insight into policies that impact family formation more generally. Finally, this project contributes to the creation of networks between the United States and China, and adds to the social and behavioral scientific study of science and technology policy.