Desiring ‘Modernity’: The History, Politics and Social Organization of a Science Museum in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Kuo, Jui-Kun, 郭瑞坤
• Other Authors: 李丁讚
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84770774250921292891

博士 === 國立清華大學 === 社會學研究所 === 100 === It is common to see a complete transplantation of culture and apparatus of western modernity for developing countries in the midst of modernization. Since 1970s, the state had started to construct a series of cultural facilities and museums to demonstrate a new kind of social and cultural governance. In this wave of museum movement, Taiwan had no exception but constructed a modern science museum which became a rare success as in its popularity. Why and how this modern museum trend emerged in Taiwan, and the role science played in this kind of museum had involved with a complicated and conflicting social, epistemic, and cultural process. Some events occurred in National Museum of Natural Science (NMNS) in recent years, such as the controversy of the renaming of Chinese Science and Technology exhibition, the controversy of “Body Worlds” exhibitions, Wollemi Pine events. Those events have reflected a contradictory situation derived from the museum professionals’ knowledge , values, and the surroundings, which I called as a regime of “avoiding risk” of museum. The emergence and transition of museum have been a topic in museology and anthropology. However, there is no further analysis about the history of social governance of Taiwanese museums. This thesis is intended to trace the historical and political process of the regime of quasi-populist and ‘avoiding-risks’ institution of modern museums. The first part of the thesis is to analyze the cultural policies in the post-war Taiwan: how did the cultural policies evolved from traditional Chinese ideology to a cultural politics embracing modern science and arts? Through the discourse, on-the-spot- investigation and practice of the science museum in the emerging process of NMNS, we could find the planning team and the state had jointly created a new rationale in the transitional period of authoritarian regime. Behind the mass visiting in the opening period of NMNS, the scientific and cultural production of the museum was also connected to the quasi-populist political rationality of late authoritarian regime. The second part shifts the focus to the exhibition controversies in the museum. Through the perspectives of social construction on scientific controversies, it depicts how a science museum deals with the controversy by the cooperation and boundary work originated from the work organization of the museum. The museum also eliminated the differences and translated the interest of the competitors to avoid risks that came along with the controversies. Based on the case study of this science museum, this thesis points out that due to its logic of self-organization and boundary work, the museum had inclined to exclude the unscientific and irrational sides from the controversies when it faced obstacles and controversies. This logic of practice had made museums rid of political and management crisis as well as uncertain risks, which made its social reputation move towards the credibility of market rationality. However, this rationale constrained the social imagination of science museums. In the end, this thesis intends to advocate the possibility for Taiwanese museums to become a public sphere with its knowledge paradigm and positive advice.