Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Study of Complementary Interactions between Agricultural Scientists and Local Farmers around Knowledge Production and Agricultural Development

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation project is a study of the political economy of agricultural science China during World War II. Using archival research methods, the researcher will examine how the war years were transformative in institutionalizing public-funded agricultural research that expanded the systematic study of local vernacular knowledge systems. The shift from small individual research institutions to large-scale public initiatives during the war was central to the emergence of Big Science for agriculture, which served to alleviate the impoverished wartime economy. The shift was accomplished by bringing scientists in closer contact with local farmers as scientists benefited through the study and codification of vernacular knowledge while farmers were given greater access to scientific education and improved crop varieties. The findings of this research have potential policy implications for international development initiatives and Chinese agricultural development more specifically. With the current renewed interest in pre-1949 models of rural development by the "New Rural Reconstruction Movement" in China, the co-PI plans to write short articles to bring his findings to a wider audience, especially those associated with rural reform today. This project seeks to bridge the gap between histories of science focused on transnational and national transformations (such as the emergence of Big Science during World War II) and micro-histories of vernacular knowledge systems. Rather than focusing solely on one of these aspects of wartime science, this research shows how the local interacted with the national and transnational: not only were non-elite actors and local knowledge systems vital to the construction of scientific knowledge and increasing agricultural production for the war, but the geopolitics of science and the hierarchies often built into research and development schemes shaped how Chinese scientists approached the process of knowledge accumulation. These transformations are vital to understanding post-war rural development and the foundations of China's subsequent Green Revolution. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.