把时间和空间带回来:论政策过程中的符号变革

Bring Time and Space Back:Symbolic Change in Policy Process

现代社会是一个符号社会,政策过程中贯穿着符号的生产和使用,政策由符号构成并受到符号的建构。在一个单向度的政策流程中,符号由政策制定者生产出来并界定其意义,符号被规范化和统一化,失去了时间和空间的视角,但凸显出其工具性价值。20世纪晚期以来随着信息社会的生成,符号爆炸的现象出现,符号不仅在数量上急剧增多,而且符号与物脱节,符号本身符号化了。符号进入到无限复制与高速流动的状态中,并把社会推向高度复杂性与高度不确定性的状态。此时,无论是符号的生成还是意义界定,都无法对其加以控制了,统一而标准的符号系统被打破,符号在一定的时空中、在具体的情境中生成并使用,只有将符号的时间和空间维度带回来才能真正赋予符号以意义,这也将带来政策过程的重构。

Modern society is a symbolic society.The production and use of symbols run through the process of policy.Policies are composed of symbols and constructed by symbols.In a one-dimensional policy process,symbols are produced and their meanings are defined by policy makers.Symbols are standardized and unified,losing the perspective of time and space,but highlighting their instrumental value.Since the late 20th century,with the emergence of the information society,the phenomenon of symbol explosion has appeared.Symbols not only increase sharply in quantity,but also become disjointed from objects,and symbols themselves become symbolized.Symbols enter the state of infinite replication and high-speed flow,and push society to a state of high complexity and uncertainty.At this time,no matter the generation of symbols or the definition of meaning,they can not be controlled.The unified and standard symbolic system has been broken.Symbols are generated and used in a certain time and space and in specific situations.Only by bringing back the time and space dimensions of symbols can symbols be truly given meaning,which is also the reconstruction of a policy process.