China is emerging as a new superpower in science and technology, reflected in the success of its spacecraft and high-velocity Maglev trains. While many seek to understand the rise of China as a technologically-based power, the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s may seem an unlikely era to explore for these insights. Despite the widespread verdict of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution as an unmitigated disaster for China, a number of recent scholars have called for re-examining Maoist science--both in China and in the West. At one time Western observers found much to admire in Chairman Mao's mass science, his egalitarian effort to take science out of the ivory tower and place it in the hands of the disenfranchised peasant, the loyal worker, and the patriot soldier. Chunjuan Nancy Wei and Darryl E. Brock have assembled a rich mix of talents and topics related to the fortunes and misfortunes of science, technology, and medicine in modern China, while tracing its roots to China's other great student revolution--the May Fourth Movement. Historians of science, political scientists, mathematicians, and others analyze how Maoist science served modern China in nationalism, socialism, and nation-building--and also where it failed the nation and the Chinese people. If the Cultural Revolution contributed to China's emerging space program and catalyzed modern malaria treatments based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, it also provided the origins of a science talent gap and the milieu from which a one-child policy would arise. Given the fundamental importance of China today, and of East Asia generally, it is imperative to have a better understanding of its most recent scientific history, but especially that history in a period of crisis and how that crisis was resolved. What is at issue here is not only the specific domain of the history of science, but the social and scientific policies of China generally as they developed and were applied prior to, during, and after the Cultural Revolution.

Sociology and Social Practice: A Sociological Analysis of Contemporary Social Processes and Their Interrelationship with Science reviews the interaction of sociological knowledge and social practice, with emphasis on the role of the practical functions of sociological science in the various spheres of society. This treatise examines from the sociological standpoint some fundamental problems that have arisen in the process of building the new society in Bulgaria and how science can help solve these problems. This book is comprised of 10 chapters organized into three sections. After an introduction to the theoretical aspects of the relationship between sociological knowledge and social practice (political practice and policy-making in particular), the discussion turns to some topical and interrelated problems such as the scientific and technical revolution; the intellectualization of social practice; the intensification of socio-economic development; the efficiency of science; and the essence of the multiplier approach. The last section explores some key problems of science as a social institution and includes chapters that discuss the scientific manpower potential in Bulgaria; scientific-information activity; and the scientific community as a collective subject of scientific activity. This monograph will be useful to sociologists and social scientists.

The Science and Technology policy changes in post-Mao China cannot be complete without a historical narrative and analysis of Science and Technology in its pre-policy (prior to 1850) and policy (since 1850 when the Qing rulers began to promote Science and Technology ) periods. This book is an imperative to revisit and interrogate the nature and scope of Chinese Science and Technology policy and progress. The text is divided into three parts. The first part considers both the macro and micro issues pertaining to Science and Technology policy in general and also of the policiy in particular. The second part highlights the historical narrative of Chinese Science and Technology policy as it has a key role in the evolution of contemporary Science and Technology architecture. The third part discusses three focal components of the Chinese Science and Technology system each representing state, society and international systems - the organizational structure representing the state; the research system representing society; and technology acquisition representing the international system with serious implications for China.

UNESCO pub. Conference report on the social implications of advancement in science and technological change, with particular reference to relationships to the social sciences - presents papers concerning the social functions of science and science policy, technology and social change, conditions in developing countries, philosophical problems of technological advancement, etc. Annotated bibliography pp. 377 to 379, diagrams and references. Conference held in prague 1976 September 6 to 10.