THESIS
2019
ix, 43 pages : color illustrations ; 30 cm
Abstract
The role of science in propelling social changes, economic growth and improving people's lives
has increased strikingly over the recent decades. As the key actors, scientific elites are essential
for resource allocation and research output in the development of science. For example, as
reported, a Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Fellow, which is generally regarded as the
scientific elite in China, is associated with an additional annual funding of US $9.5 million for
their affiliations. However, the selection criteria of CAS Fellows are contentious that following
particularism or universalism in the existing theoretical discussion, the former of which will
bring potential policy problems such as corruption. Hometown ties are identified as one of
most important factors to predi...[
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The role of science in propelling social changes, economic growth and improving people's lives
has increased strikingly over the recent decades. As the key actors, scientific elites are essential
for resource allocation and research output in the development of science. For example, as
reported, a Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Fellow, which is generally regarded as the
scientific elite in China, is associated with an additional annual funding of US $9.5 million for
their affiliations. However, the selection criteria of CAS Fellows are contentious that following
particularism or universalism in the existing theoretical discussion, the former of which will
bring potential policy problems such as corruption. Hometown ties are identified as one of
most important factors to predict the selection. At the same time, the spatial concentration of
professional intellectuals in the empire and modern China has been focused for a long time,
which will affect the building of hometown ties logically. Although they are two different
concepts, the relationship of them will determine that the selection criteria of scientific elites
in China is particularistic or universalistic. Thus, this research tries to put these two issues
together to analyse the selection mechanism of scientific elites in China and further respond to
the existing theoretical argument on the criteria of elite selection. Based on the data collected
by the author, this research apply Fixed-effect Logistic Model and Social Network Analysis to
exploring the selection consideration of CAS Fellow. There are two main findings. First, both
social ties, including hometown tie and academic achievement, could predict the rates of being
selected as scientific elites. However, the effect of hometown tie can be mediated by the spatial
agglomeration of scientific elites. Second, the pattern of hometown tie is dominated by three
significant regional clusters – Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. It also proved the
spatial centration of scientific elites. The analysis of between-centrality presented that the
between-centrality of research collaboration network is the most significant factor to affect the
selection.
KEY WORDS: Scientific elites, Selection, Particularism, Universalism
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