This dissertation project explores the interaction of cultural, social, economic and political factors in the construction of the sciences. The approach is a comparative study of the neurosciences in the United States and China. The research strategy includes participant observation, interviews with neuroscientists in the U.S. and China, and content analysis of the publications of American neuroscience and Chinese brain research leaders as well as American and Chinese popular and professional sources on the images of the brain. The research explores the social and cultural values, and economic and political systems under which the research agenda for neurosciences has been set; the formation, impact and transformation of cultural concepts of the brain and gender as part of general cultural traditions and values; and the ways in which sociopolitical systems and cultural traditions affect recruitment into careers in the neurosciences and account for the differences in the research styles, priorities and methods of neuroscientists in the U.S. and China. The objectives of the dissertation are to demonstrate how the neurosciences are constructed in different value contexts by studying the field itself and the careers of its membership, and to explore the factors that may account for the differences between American and Chinese neurosciences in research agendas, recruitment patterns, and scientific careers.
