Science, Technology, and Society Seminar: STS Circle at Harvard (Hybrid)
Date and Time
Location
"Polarized Expertise: How Competing Views of Science Shaped Taiwan’s Pandemic Response"
Speaker:
Joshua Freedman, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pennsylvania.
Moderator:
Nicole West Bassoff, PhD Candidate in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.
Contact:
Laura Flynn
lauraflynn@hks.harvard.edu
Cosponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and the Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Chair:
Sheila Jasanoff, Faculty Associate. Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies; Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy, Committee on Degrees in Environmental Science and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.
Attendance Information:
- Please register online to attend this event in person at CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Room S354. A light lunch is provided for those that register by 1:00pm on the Thursday before the event.
- Please sign up to attend this event via Zoom
Abstract:
Prominent accounts of COVID-19 attribute a large share of Taiwan's success to its public commitment to science and deference to experts. Such claims, however, overlook the complex politics of scientific advising, expert networks, and scientist-society relations in Taiwan. Through in-depth interviews with advisers, officials, and scholars, I show how competing understandings of science contributed to cleavages among experts that emerged during the pandemic. I describe the formation, functioning, and challenges of two expert committees that highlight these divides: the overall pandemic advisory committee and the committee for approving emergency authorization for domestic vaccines. While Taiwan is known for its intense political partisanship, I argue that these divisions among experts were not rooted in partisan politics; instead, disciplinary boundaries and divergent views of science, combined with a dynamic relationship between leaders, scientists, and citizens, encouraged expert polarization. This research demystifies Taiwan’s pandemic response and contributes new evidence to research on the politics of expert advising.
Bio:
Joshua Freedman is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China at the University of Pennsylvania. His current project investigates the politics of science in China, focusing on how the party-state engages with experts and how scientific authority shapes contemporary Chinese society. Other ongoing research topics include the role of scientists in Taiwan’s pandemic response; evolving Chinese views of the United States; and the comparative political theory of technocracy and populism in Asia. In addition to his scholarly work, he contributes analysis, reportage, and opinion on policy and politics in both the United States and China for public outlets including Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and Washington Monthly. He holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and a B.A. in Public Policy from Stanford University.