Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This article proposes new theoretical perspective to the dynamics of scientific politics and its representation. In critical review of Latour and Bourdieu’s theory, the proposition of the Ontological Network and relevant network analysis attempts at providing better understanding of the actual scientific case: the infamous Korean stem cell scandal(the scientific misconduct of Hwang Woo Suk) in 2006.
For the case study, it analyzes the transformation of the scientific network of stem cell researchers in Korea: 2004-2005. During the short period, there was rapid change in the relation of stem cell researchers and the power distribution. Through the mutual interaction of the actor and the structure, it elucidates the actor’s strategy to secure recognition and the structural constraints.
Hwang Woo Suk was initially positioned in a relatively alienated place in the actor’s network. The isolation represented the institutional practice of hierarchy and the cultural practice of nepotism in Korean society. To overcome the isolation and acquire recognition, he applied the same practice in the network. The effect of the same practices he utilized, however, also worked against forming a stable alliance in the domestic field, pressuring him for the quick, often exaggerated, or even fabricated, results.
Acknowledging that the conclusion on the causality is a reflection of the researcher’s own perspective, in its epistemological sense, the systemic comparison with the different public perception was made. By this comparison, this study tries to reveal the underlying perception of the public on the scientific event- Hwang’s scandal, and the meaning of the representation.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We articulate a theory of scientific and technical human capital, and argue that it provides a way to understand differences between and among academic scientists. We use human, social, life course, and social network theory to argue that scientists vary in their individual science-related human and social endowments, and that this variation creates greater and lesser degrees of scientific capacity which are then brought to the individual’s career and, ultimately, to science itself. Because this form of capital is dynamic, it is both an input and a product of the scientific enterprise, continually evolving over the course of a scientist’s career. Using a nationally representative sample of academic scientists, we operationalize the S&T human capital construct, and demonstrate how it affects career outcomes of scientists.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Scientific assessments must continuously accommodate themselves through learning to the growing complexity caused by increasing demand for them to address multiple and interlinking problems and/or to provide advice to multiple international fora. This pap

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The growth in influence of the “economic approach to politics” within Political Science and International Relations is based on the conventionally accepted view that neoclassical economics is “the most scientific of the social sciences.” However, neoclassical economics have long been criticized for building and employing theories whose core components (assumptions, premises, postulates, axioms, etc) are readily accepted as unrealistic or false. The unrealistic nature of these central components has traditionally been defended through the deployment of instrumentalism, which itself is based in a positivist understanding of science. Drawing upon the scientific realist and critical realist critique of positivism, this paper constructs a realist critique of instrumentalism and its use in defending the scientific status neoclassical social theories. It will be shown that instrumentalism is not scientifically defensible from a realist point of view and that there has been considerable criticism of the continued use of instrumentalism to defend the practices of scholars who employ neoclassical economics as a scientific approach to social phenomena. Noting that these criticisms have not had a major impact on the practices of scholars employing the neoclassical approach, the paper turns to a critical realist explanation for this negligible impact, focusing on the larger social structures that help to generate and shape the production of “scientific” knowledge. The paper ends with a discussion of the relationship between the positivist notion of value-neutral/objective science and the role that scholars play in reinforcing and reproducing larger societal structures through the kinds of social theories they employ. The paper argues that the growing realist critique of the neoclassical approach should be taken more seriously within IR and Political Science.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper applies Bourdieu's field theory to examine the authority sources, conflict reasons, and group dynamics of the isotope lab in a Chinese research university. After 7 months of participant observation and non-structured interviews, I find that the theoretical capital and the technological capital are the valid capital and the sub-valid capital in the isotope lab, which determine one's formal position and informal status respectively. Dominators and subordinates apply different strategies to gain their interest. The interest conflict induced competition between capitals and in turn caused interpersonal conflict. Although technology is an important factor in group structuring, an exogenous shift contributed to the dominance of the theoretical capital in the current group structure. In addition, the unceasing inter-capital conflict made the group always an unstable field.