MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Event

Jan 11, 2023
Practice as the Criterion of Truth—Ruptures and Continuities of Scientific Knowledge Discourses in 20th-Century China

By looking at the formation of the public discourse of science and technology in the Mao-era this talk will highlight how the empowerment of workers and farmers in socialist China helped to shape a distinct vision of science and technology that was supposed to realize the goal of fast modernization with limited financial, human, and material resources. The strategy of the Communist Party-state to accommodate Western and local, "modern" and "traditional" knowledges in the fields of agricultural mechanization, steel production, and Chinese veterinary medicine brought forth new technologies. They were a result of the continuity of scientific thinking across the historical divides of 1949 and 1978. 

Biography

  • Marc Andre Matten poses holding two books in front of a bookshelf
    Marc Matten

    Marc Andre Matten is the Professor for Contemporary Chinese History at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU). His research interests include, the history of knowledge transfers between Europe and China in the 20th century and the historiography of global history in contemporary China. His most recent publications are Knowledge Production in Mao-Era China—Learning from the Masses (Lexington, 2021, together with Rui Kunze), Moving Knowledge—The Soviet Union and China in the Twentieth Century (special issue of Comparativ, 2019, together with Julia Obertreis), as well as Imagining a Postnational World—Hegemony and Space in Modern China (Brill, 2016).   

Address
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Room
Zoom/Online Meeting Platform
Contact and Registration

Please register at the following link: 
https://zoom.us/j/99516596246?pwd=b0Y3akFwN3FEejRZUTFGZ3ZQNWg2UT09

This event is part of the LMRG & BCCN Lecture Series "China—The New Science Superpower?" For further information about the series, specific sessions, or questions concerning registration, please contact office-ahlers@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de.

About This Series

China’s push to become a leading science power is unprecedented in its speed, scope and, arguably, success. Reactions to China’s rise in global science are dichotomous: some anticipate that science made in China may come to dominate global academia while others deem it impossible to achieve scientific leadership under an authoritarian regime. A focus on rankings and statistics alone is apparently not enough to grasp the origins, characteristics, and the possible futures of China as a science superpower.

This monthly lecture series will bring together fresh empirical insights and intriguing theoretical reflections about the development of the science system in the People’s Republic of China and its global integration. Representing a variety of social science perspectives, our guest speakers will explore the evolution of Chinese science policy, interactions of societal norms and values and academia in the PRC, factors that enable or constrain scientific innovation, the global reception of scientific output and investment from China, the securitization of international collaboration, and much more.

Marc Matten

Links
Full Program: BCCN Lecture Series "China—The New Science Superpower?"
MarcMatten_Jan11_BCCN.pdf
2023-01-11T14:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2023-01-11 14:00:00 2023-01-11 15:30:00 Practice as the Criterion of Truth—Ruptures and Continuities of Scientific Knowledge Discourses in 20th-Century China By looking at the formation of the public discourse of science and technology in the Mao-era this talk will highlight how the empowerment of workers and farmers in socialist China helped to shape a distinct vision of science and technology that was supposed to realize the goal of fast modernization with limited financial, human, and material resources. The strategy of the Communist Party-state to accommodate Western and local, "modern" and "traditional" knowledges in the fields of agricultural mechanization, steel production, and Chinese veterinary medicine brought forth new technologies. They were a result of the continuity of scientific thinking across the historical divides of 1949 and 1978.  Biography Marc Matten Marc Andre Matten is the Professor for Contemporary Chinese History at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU). His research interests include, the history of knowledge transfers between Europe and China in the 20th century and the historiography of global history in contemporary China. His most recent publications are Knowledge Production in Mao-Era China—Learning from the Masses (Lexington, 2021, together with Rui Kunze), Moving Knowledge—The Soviet Union and China in the Twentieth Century (special issue of Comparativ, 2019, together with Julia Obertreis), as well as Imagining a Postnational World—Hegemony and Space in Modern China (Brill, 2016).    Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany Zoom/Online Meeting Platform Europe/Berlin public