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This chapter introduces the idea of scientific cultures as complex, multifaceted sets of norms and values, shared within a given scientific community, about the appropriate social practice of scientific teaching and research. It identifies seven dimensions of scientific cultures:
1. The attitude towards existing scientific knowledge
2. The approach to problem-solving
3. The scope of research ambitions
4. The degree of autonomy given to individual scientists within a research team
5. The importance given to rank and seniority
6. The attitudes towards difference within the lab or research organization, and finally
7. The approach to inward- and outward-facing communication
This chapter details each of these dimensions using Western-trained Asian scientists’ comparative accounts of their early training in Asia and their subsequent training in the West. This chapter also documents the significant variation in each of these dimensions not only between Asia and the West, but also within each of these world regions at the level of countries, universities, and also individual labs. This helps debunk the idea of a single Asian or Western scientific culture.
This chapter introduces the concept of scientific remittances – the informational, reputational and cultural diffusion that occurs as a result of the brain circulation of scientists. The scientific remittances that returning Asian scientists bring back with them include, not just new scientific know-how and new network connections in the global scientific field, but also new norms and values regarding the social practice of scientific training and research. At the same time, this chapter acknowledges that the Asian societies where scientists returned had also undergone change during their time in the West. Partly in response to these societal changes, and their own positionality within their institutions, returnees tended to focus their own change efforts on their labs and classrooms. I highlight four key cultural dimensions where returnees were focusing their change efforts. These were:
1. Encouraging a curiosity-driven approach to scientific learning
2. Raising their students’ research passions and ambitions
3. Leveling attitudes towards rank within their labs
This chapter introduces the questions driving the book and summarizes its four main findings:
1. The recent improvements in the scientific research systems in select Asian countries, that have led to an increase in the return migrations of Western-trained Asian scientists
2. The increasing diversification of training pathways within the Asian scientist migration system
3. How returned Asian scientists are affecting the scientific research systems and scientific cultures in the Asian research organizations where they work through their scientific remittances
4. The variations that exist in the scientific research systems and cultures across Asia.
This chapter also introduces the book's foundational concepts – such as the global scientific field, brain circulation, migration systems, scientific remittances and scientific cultures. The chapter explains the research design and methods used to collect data, and provides descriptive statistics about the 119 Asian scientists interviewed for the book. These 119 scientists are divided into three groups: those who stayed in the West after their training, those who returned to their birth country, and those who halfway-returned to another Asian country.
This concluding chapter outlines the implications of the shifting scientific landscape in Asia for future generations of Asian scientists. The chapter reviews the theoretical implications of the key findings from the book, and revisits the new concepts and ideas introduced throughout the book, which have relevance for the fields of migration studies, science & technology studies and also gender studies. The chapter highlights what is yet to be studied on this topic, and lays out a future research agenda for scholars from these fields. Finally, the chapter highlights the policy implications of these developments for Asian and non-Asian countries, and ends with a set of policy recommendations for government officials and research leaders in these countries as they seek to make themselves attractive destinations for native (and nonnative) research scientists and raise their relative profile in the global scientific field.
The growing scientific research output from Asia has been making headlines since the start of the twenty-first century. But behind this science story, there is a migration story. The elite scientists who are pursuing cutting-edge research in Asia are rarely 'homegrown' talent but were typically born in Asia, trained in the West, and then returned to work in Asia. Asian Scientists on the Move explores why more and more Asian scientists are choosing to return to Asia, and what happens after their return, when these scientists set up labs in Asia and start training the next generation of Asian scientists. Drawing on evocative firsthand accounts from 119 Western-trained Asian scientists about their migration decisions and experiences, and in-depth analysis of the scientific field in four country case studies - China, India, Singapore and Taiwan - the book reveals the growing complexity of the Asian scientist migration system.
The project aims to recover the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Havana (AOUH) for science outreach at the national level, in order to help increasing the interest in science primarily among children and youth.
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