从决定论到能动性——近四十年技术转移研究述评

From Determinism to Agency:A Review of Technology Transfer Studies in Fourty Years Within and Beyond China

技术转移问题日益受到学界关注,但早期的技术转移研究囿于制度决定论,忽视地方能动性。1980年代以来,以STS和后殖民为代表的许多理论取向为技术转移研究在技术内涵、行动者和权力关系三方面解决制度决定论和地方能动性的问题奠定了基础。这些理论取向也影响了中国近现代技术转移研究的多个领域,包括大型技术系统,具有本土历史传统的混生技术,及日常技术的转移等。通过鼓励跨学科沟通,拓宽技术转移的考察范围,重视发展中国家间的技术转移,国内的科技史与科技社会研究将进一步拓展深化,为我国自主创新提供学术依据。

The discussion of technology transfer has become popular in academia worldwide.Early scholarship featured by institutionalism failed to account for the local agency in the technology transfer.Since the 1980s,the emergence of theoretical approaches represented by STS and postcolonial studies have enabled scholars to transcend institutionalism through revisiting the content,actor,and power relation of technology transfer.This article reviews how the two theoretical approaches,among many,shed new light on multiple topics of technology transfer in modern China,including the transfer of large-technical system,hybrid/cultural technology,and everyday technology.The imperatives of advancing Chinese scholarship on technology studies and advising national innovation call for interdisciplinary collaboration,broadening research topics,and attention to the technology transfer between developing countries.