“Global Politics of Science and Technology”
Interdisciplinary Research Lab – Tongji University
School of Politics and International Relations of Tongji University
German Studies Center of Tongji University
Venue/Room:German Studies Center, Conference Room 901
Time: 18:30-20:00 PM
Moderators: Professor Maximilian Mayer (maximilian_mayer@tongji.edu.cn)， Professor Wang Chuanxing (wangchuanxing@tongji.edu.cn)
Organization: Chengzhan Zhuang (cz.zhuang@googlemail.com)
Contact: Li Congcong (leecony13@163.com), Zhao Lijuan (2juan@tongji.edu.cn)
Theme
The reality of international politics has rapidly grown in complexity, pressuring social sciences to engage with new phenomena, concerns, and issue domains, translating them into innovative theorizations. Science and technology is one of these issues. Contemporary human life is tied to and thoroughly permeated by artifacts, technical systems and infrastructures. It is hard to imagine any domestic, international or global issue that does not have technological or scientific aspects. However, this condition remains fundamentally challenging for many approaches within global studies and International Relations theory (IR), where science and technology have been largely treated as exogenous. Although an increasing number of scholars is exploring the roles that scientific practices and technological systems play in international affairs and global politics, the subject matter deserves much more systematic scrutiny. Although most theories do not grant science and technology a genuine conceptual place, there is enough research from divers disciplinary fields – including geography, science and technology studies, sociology, innovation studies, global history, etc. – to document and reconstruct the breadth and depth of the vivid, yet unrecognized subfield of international relations. Hence, the further conceptual and analytical development of this research field greatly benefits from interdisciplinary conversations.
Objectives
The main aim of this format is to foster an open and creative environment for research and development of analytical thinking. While concrete research projects might evolve over time, it is not the prime goal to develop research projects. Instead, we hope to slowly build an expanding network of interdisciplinary experts working on the issue of global politics of science and technology. Thereby, disciplinary and cross-disciplinary analytical skills and expertise shall be strengthened across departments and fields of research within Tongji University and among university in Shanghai, becoming a hub for creative and cutting-edge thinking about global politics, science and technology.
Methods
The research lab consists (in its first phase) of a series of presentations with subsequent extended discussions/Q&A. While all topics will be related to the general theme, thediscussions are open to for different disciplinary and analytical perspectives; research presented here is work-in-progress. In fact, the idea of this Lab is to appreciate and encourage productive exchanges among a diversity of viewpoints, a process that is essential for the success of this format. The format is open for Master- and PhD-Students, Post-docs of all faculties, as well as researchers and professors of Tongji and other Shanghai Universities.
Preliminary schedule Winter Semester 2015/2016
15th October 2015 Maximilian Mayer (Tongji University): “Global Politics of Science and Technology – recent international developments of an interdisciplinary research field”
Wang Chuanxing(Tongji University): Global Politics of Science and Technology– recent domestic developments of an interdisciplinary research field”
22th October Maximilian Mayer(Tongji University):“Old and new approaches to science and technology in International Relations theory”
29thOctober 2015 Wang Chuanxing (Tongji University): “Science & Technologies and International System Transformation”
19th November 2015 Cuihong Cai (Fudan University):“On China’s Cyber Security“
26th November 2015 Qiu Jiajun (School of Political Science and International Relations): ”Can Different Cultures Be Compatible with the Same Political System?”
1stDecember 2015 Prof. Douglas Howland (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee): “Sovereignty and technology – notes about the emergence of the modern state systems in the 19th century”
10th December 2015 Zhong Zhiyang (Tongji University): “Human Resources in Science and Technology: Measurement issues and mobility”// Eike Hesselbarth (HEC Paris): „Industry 4.0“
17th December 2015 Dániel Balázs (Tongji University): “Hydrograhy, island infrastructures and the blue economy: technologies of maritime Silk Road”; Maximilian Mayer (Tongji University): “The paradigm of coproduction: How to raise questions and articulate research puzzles”
Basic literature
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Bousquet, Antoine J. (2009): The scientific way of warfare: order and chaos on the battlefields of modernity. New York: Columbia University Press.
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Mayer, Maximilian, Mariana Carpes, and Ruth Knoblich, eds. (2014): International Relations and the Global Politics of Science and Technology:Vol. 1 - Approaches, Concepts and Interdisciplinary Conversations. Heidelberg: Springer.
Mayer, Maximilian, Mariana Carpes, and Ruth Knoblich, eds. (2014):International Relations and the Global Politics of Science and Technology:Vol. 2 - Cases and Perspectives. Heidelberg: Springer.
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