Scholar's Award: Scanning the Globe: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Research and Development in the United Kingdom, India and the United States

摘要？普拉萨德奖，ID 0724474技术科学研究和开发的全球化在过去二十年中进入了一个新的阶段。除了在全世界引起强烈的公众舆论外，科技全球化的这一新阶段也是决策者和学术界的一个重要关切。本项目将通过对英国、印度和美国的尖端医疗技术磁共振成像（MRI）的研究和开发进行跨文化和跨国研究，分析技术科学全球化的社会经济和技术特征。它建立在阿米特·普拉萨德的基础上？她之前的工作分析了印度和美国的MRI研究。智力优势。MRI为研究科技全球化的转变提供了一个很好的例子，因为MRI研究和开发的生命周期（从20世纪70年代到现在）与这种转变非常相似（也部分推动了这种转变）。在这方面，一个三国跨文化的MRI研究是特别有用的。英国、印度和美国的MRI研究有着不同但又相互关联的轨迹。在这三个国家和它们之间的联系的MRI研究对比的情况下，将提供有用的见解，这些特定的国家内的社会技术网络，并将这些网络的影响，并影响跨国技术科学研究的影响。这个项目的一个出发点是，即使英国，印度和美国之间的关系是不对称的，这些国家的技术科学研究不能通过简单的中心/边缘，西方/非西方，主导/被主导，或全球主义/地方主义的概念二分法来理解。这项研究，而不是使用这些二分法作为解释类别，将严格审查他们通过跨文化和跨国分析MRI研究在英国，印度和美国。这项工作的核心是短期的实地调查，包括与英国MRI科学家的访谈，结合有限的参与者观察，以及从多个证据领域收集数据，包括科学论文，政策文件，非专业文章，传记和自传笔记。从英国收集的数据将与已经从印度和美国收集的数据相结合，以开发一个三国跨文化研究。本项目将研究的一些关键问题是：中心-边缘模型在理解科技研究的跨国地形方面有用吗？或者是否有必要发展更复杂的科技全球化模式？社会技术网络（一个国家内的政策、跨国公司的实践、公众舆论等）在创造知识、人工制品和人员在一个国家内以及跨国之间的等级流动方面发挥了什么作用？知识、人工制品和人员的跨国流动是否使民族国家（以及国家科技政策）变得越来越无关紧要？还是民族国家已经转变了角色，成为跨国流动的推动者？实验室研究如何受到这些跨国流动的影响？更广泛的影响。这项研究报告将作为专著出版，它将为科学技术研究和发展的全球化提供有益的见解。它将有助于政策制定，并有助于一些理论方法和文献，特别是科学和技术研究，后殖民科学研究和全球化研究。

ABSTRACT ? Prasad Award, ID 0724474 Globalization of techno-scientific research and development has entered a new phase in the last two decades. Apart from arousing strong public opinion all over the world, this new phase of techno-scientific globalization has been an important concern for policy makers and academics. This project will analyze socio-economic and technical features of techno-scientific globalization through a cross-cultural and transnational study of research and development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a cutting-edge medical technology, in the United Kingdom (UK), India and the United States (US). It builds on Amit Prasad?s previous work, which analyzed MRI research in India and the US. Intellectual Merit. MRI offers an excellent example for the study of transformations in techno-scientific globalization because the life cycle of MRI research and development (from the 1970s to the present) very closely parallels (and has also partly propelled) such transformations. In this regard a three-nation cross-cultural study of MRI research is particularly useful. MRI research in the UK, India and the US have had different and yet inter-linked trajectories. A study of contrasting cases of MRI research in these three nations and linkages between them will provide useful insights into socio-technical networks within these particular nations and will bring to the fore how these networks are affected by and affect transnational techno-scientific research. A starting point for this project is that even though the relationship between the UK, India and the US is asymmetrical, techno-scientific research in and between these nations cannot be understood through simple conceptual dichotomies of center/periphery, west/non-west, dominant/dominated, or globalism/localism. This study, instead of using these dichotomies as explanatory categories, will critically scrutinize them through a cross-cultural and transnational analysis of MRI research in the UK, India and the US. Central to this undertaking is a short period of fieldwork involving interviews with MRI scientists in the UK combined with a limited participant observation, and collection of data from multiple domains of evidence, which includes scientific papers, policy documents, lay articles, biographical and autobiographical notes. The data collected from the UK will be combined with the data that have already been collected from India and the US in order to develop a three-nation cross-cultural study. Some key questions that this project will investigate are: Are center-periphery models useful in understanding transnational topography of techno-scientific research? Or is there a need to develop more complex models of techno-scientific globalization? What role does socio-technical networks (of policies within a nation, practices of multinational companies, public opinion, and so on) have in creating hierarchical flows of knowledge, artifacts, and people within a nation as well as transnationally? Are transnational flows of knowledge, artifacts, and people making the nation-state (and national science and technology policies) increasingly irrelevant? Or have the nation-states transformed their roles and become facilitators of transnational flows? How is laboratory research affected by these transnational flows? Broader Impact. This study, which will be published as a book monograph, will provide useful insights into globalization of techno-scientific research and development. It will help in policy making and contribute to several theoretical approaches and literatures, in particular science and technology studies, postcolonial science studies, and globalization studies.