Engineering a State of Nature: Hydraulic Transformations on the North China Plain, 1949-1999

工程学一种自然状态：中国平原北部的水利工程，1949-99本研究将探索1949年以来中国平原北部的水利工程。具体地说，该项目围绕两个问题展开：1)国家建设、民族认同和对现代性的追求如何塑造并反过来塑造了水利工程；2)水利工程如何改变了中国平原北部的环境。这项研究将通过区分不同的国家价值观和目标来探索1949年后国家与自然的关系。国家在20世纪50年代的大部分时间里实行苏联式的中央计划，在1958-1961年间实行大跃进分权和社区化，在20世纪60年代初(1961-65年)和70年代初(1961-65)和70年代，文化大革命(1966-69)期间，以及后毛时代(1978-)的“市场社会主义”期间，国家计划和群众动员相结合。智力价值该项目将审查这些时期的水利工程项目，并就这些项目如何反映国家目标得出结论。关于这些时期的环境后果的比较结论将通过考察基本的紧张局势来指导，这些紧张局势为水利工程提供了信息，并反映了对民族、国家和现代性的不同假设。这些矛盾包括：1)现代技术与群众动员；2)中央与地方规划；3)国际技术合作与自力更生；4)经济发展与环境保护。这项关于国家、水利工程和自然的交叉点的研究，受到了过去科学技术社会背景下的学术研究的影响。具体地说，这项研究受到了最近的学术研究的很大影响，这些学术研究考察了国家与自然的“共建”，承认了国家作为参与者在现代性、技术和自然的话语中的关键作用。更广泛的影响本研究将填补中国在科学技术研究和环境史研究方面的空白，并将为其他比较研究提供有价值的研究。许多关于国家与自然关系的学术研究都集中在西方文化区域。这项研究将认识到，中国社会的关键要素确实符合20世纪工业化社会所反映的国家、科学技术和自然的基本概念。然而，与此同时，中国国家的社会政治价值观、目标和制度产生了1949年后中国水利工程的特殊文化背景。该项目还将培养对中国当代改革计划的更微妙的看法。了解1949年以来水利工程和技术是如何嵌入到特定的历史和文化背景中的，使人们能够认识和理解中国的水政策规划者可以选择的范围。这项研究的结论还将表明资源枯竭对中国在世界市场中的角色和中国的安全考虑的潜在影响。农业生产力下降是缺水的后果之一，这将对中国的内外行动产生重要影响。这项研究将暗示中国对世界农产品市场的潜在影响，以及它在地区和全球安全安排中越来越多的存在。

ENGINEERING A STATE OF NATURE: HYDRAULIC TRANSFORMATIONS ON THE NORTH CHINA PLAIN, 1949-99This research will explore hydraulic engineering on the North China Plain since 1949. Specifically, the project centers on two issues: 1) how hydraulic engineering was shaped by, and in turn shaped, state-building, national identity, and the pursuit of modernity, and 2) how the environment of the North China Plain was transformed by hydraulic engineering. The research will explore the state-nature nexus after 1949 by distinguishing differing state values and goals. The state pursued Soviet-style central planning for much of the 1950s, Great Leap Forward decentralization and communalization between 1958-1961, a blend of state planning and mass mobilization during the early 1960s (1961-65) and 1970s, the Cultural Revolution (1966-69), and "market socialism" of the post-Mao era (1978-). Intellectual MeritsThe project will examine hydraulic engineering projects during these periods and develop conclusions on how these projects were reflections of state goals. Comparative conclusions about the environmental consequences of these periods will be guided by examining fundamental tensions that informed hydraulic engineering, and that reflected differing assumptions about the nation, state, and modernity. These tensions included: 1) modern technology vs. mass mobilization, 2) central vs. local planning, 3) international technical cooperation vs. self-reliance, and 4) economic development vs. environmental protection. This study on the intersections between the state, hydraulic engineering, and nature is influenced by past scholarship on the social context of science and technology. Specifically, the research is heavily influenced by recent scholarship that examines the "co-construction" of nation and nature, and that recognizes the critical role of the state as actor in the discourses of modernity, technology, and nature. Broader ImpactsThis research will fill a void in science and technology studies, and environmental historical studies of China, and will offer research valuable to other comparative studies. Much of the scholarship on the relationship between states and nature has focused on western cultural regions. This research will recognize that critical elements of Chinese society indeed subscribed to fundamental twentieth-century conceptions of state, science and technology, and nature reflected in industrialized societies. At the same time, however, the Chinese state's socio-political values, goals, and institutions generated a particular cultural context of hydraulic engineering in China after 1949. The project will also foster a more nuanced view of China's contemporary reform program. Understanding how hydraulic engineering and technology were embedded in a particular historical and cultural context since 1949 allows one to recognize and understand the range of choices available to China's water policy planners. The conclusions of this study will also suggest the potential implications of resource depletion on China's role in world markets and on China's security considerations. Declining agricultural productivity, one consequence of water scarcity, will influence China's internal and external actions in important ways. The research will be suggestive of China's potential impact on world agricultural markets and its increasing presence in regional and global security arrangements.