Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Study of Complementary Interactions between Agricultural Scientists and Local Farmers around Knowledge Production and Agricultural Development

本博士论文项目是对第二次世界大战期间中国农业科学的政治经济学的研究。利用档案研究方法，研究人员将研究战争年代是如何在制度化的公共资助的农业研究，扩大了当地本土知识体系的系统研究的变革。在战争期间，从小型的个体研究机构向大规模的公共倡议的转变是农业大科学出现的核心，这有助于缓解贫困的战时经济。这一转变是通过使科学家与当地农民更密切地接触来实现的，因为科学家通过研究和编纂本地知识而受益，而农民则有更多的机会获得科学教育和改良作物品种。 本研究结果对国际发展倡议和中国农业发展具有潜在的政策意义。随着中国“新农村建设运动”对1949年前农村发展模式的兴趣重新燃起，共同PI计划撰写短文，将他的发现带给更广泛的受众，特别是那些与当今农村改革相关的受众。该项目旨在弥合专注于跨国和国家变革（如第二次世界大战期间大科学的出现）的科学史与本土知识体系的微观历史之间的差距。这项研究并没有仅仅关注战时科学的这些方面之一，而是展示了当地如何与国家和跨国相互作用：非精英行动者和地方知识体系不仅对科学知识的构建和为战争增加农业生产至关重要，但是，科学的地缘政治和研究和发展计划中经常建立的等级制度，决定了中国科学家如何接近知识积累的过程。这些转变对于理解战后农村发展和中国随后的绿色革命的基础至关重要。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation project is a study of the political economy of agricultural science China during World War II. Using archival research methods, the researcher will examine how the war years were transformative in institutionalizing public-funded agricultural research that expanded the systematic study of local vernacular knowledge systems. The shift from small individual research institutions to large-scale public initiatives during the war was central to the emergence of Big Science for agriculture, which served to alleviate the impoverished wartime economy. The shift was accomplished by bringing scientists in closer contact with local farmers as scientists benefited through the study and codification of vernacular knowledge while farmers were given greater access to scientific education and improved crop varieties. The findings of this research have potential policy implications for international development initiatives and Chinese agricultural development more specifically. With the current renewed interest in pre-1949 models of rural development by the "New Rural Reconstruction Movement" in China, the co-PI plans to write short articles to bring his findings to a wider audience, especially those associated with rural reform today. This project seeks to bridge the gap between histories of science focused on transnational and national transformations (such as the emergence of Big Science during World War II) and micro-histories of vernacular knowledge systems. Rather than focusing solely on one of these aspects of wartime science, this research shows how the local interacted with the national and transnational: not only were non-elite actors and local knowledge systems vital to the construction of scientific knowledge and increasing agricultural production for the war, but the geopolitics of science and the hierarchies often built into research and development schemes shaped how Chinese scientists approached the process of knowledge accumulation. These transformations are vital to understanding post-war rural development and the foundations of China's subsequent Green Revolution.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.