Making National Science Policy

科学和政策是如何相互影响的？例如，政策重点如何影响科学研究？反过来，科学发现如何被用来证明特定政策和法律的合理性？这些都是研究政策的社会和行为科学家以及政策制定者和公众的核心问题。这个项目通过探索科学知识是如何产生的，以及科学决策在人口科学和政策的关键新领域意味着什么，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。自从实行独生子女政策以来，中国出生人口的男女比例越来越男性化。女孩的失踪给那些找不到妻子的男人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和政策领域。由于对社会稳定深感担忧，中央政府及其专家顾问现在将这些单身汉视为党创建和谐社会目标的潜在暴力威胁。诸如此类的政策框架至关重要：一旦纳入公共政策，它们就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。基于首席研究员对影响家庭构成的政策的长期研究，该项目涉及2011- 2013年期间14个月的研究，旨在了解这一新兴的科学治理领域。本项目运用科学技术研究理论，结合民族志和文献研究方法，分为两部分：科学研究的民族志和政策制定的民族志。首席研究员将调查参与科学研究和政策制定的利益相关者。通过研究科学家和决策者的微观实践，该项目调查了科学政策是如何在国家层面上制定的。该项目的广泛影响阐明了科学决策的本质以及科学与法律的相互构成。专家知识如何为政策动态提供信息，对制定什么样的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为更广泛地影响家庭形成的政策提供了洞察力。最后，该项目有助于建立中美两国之间的网络，并增加了科技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.