{"id":{"repo_id":"lancaster","oai_identifier":"oai:eprints.lancs.ac.uk:126163"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/lancaster/oai:eprints.lancs.ac.uk:126163","repository":{"repo_id":"lancaster","name":"Lancaster University","base_url":"https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/cgi/oai2"},"display":{"title":"Sociotechnical imaginary and rationality : political factuality and public authority in Taiwanese energy politics","abstract":"After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, an outcry erupted in Taiwanese society demanding a sustainable energy transition. However, the dominant sociotechnical imagination in postwar Taiwan – developmental high modernism – manifests itself in tacit answers to the questions of what a better society should be, how technical choices should be made to achieve that goal, and what the most pragmatic and viable approach is to make the particular dreamed-of future become reality. Using an approach informed by STS/SSK (sociology of scientific knowledge), this thesis explores the exclusion of alternative energy futures brought about by a high modernist imaginary and looks into its nationalist-high modernist rationality in the forms of shared story-lines, created factuality and routinised technical choices within governmental institutions. High modernism in East Asia is characterised by the authoritarian reflex of planning rationality, which gives paramount political weight to a collectivist and unitary idea of the public good which is crafted through performative technicality in constructing the impartiality and objectivity of public authority. I explore this rationality through two case studies: national planning around power shortage and reserve margins, and the setting of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy. By way of contrast, I then explore a third case study: the development of combined PV energy, agriculture and aquaculture initiatives in Linbian and Jiadong. I suggest that can this give us clues about an alternative, grassroots ‘indigenist-reformist rationality’ imaginary for Taiwan which reassembles and enacts an indigenous identity rooted in attachment to land and locality.","abstract_html":"After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, an outcry erupted in Taiwanese society demanding a sustainable energy transition. However, the dominant sociotechnical imagination in postwar Taiwan – developmental high modernism – manifests itself in tacit answers to the questions of what a better society should be, how technical choices should be made to achieve that goal, and what the most pragmatic and viable approach is to make the particular dreamed-of future become reality. Using an approach informed by STS/SSK (sociology of scientific knowledge), this thesis explores the exclusion of alternative energy futures brought about by a high modernist imaginary and looks into its nationalist-high modernist rationality in the forms of shared story-lines, created factuality and routinised technical choices within governmental institutions. High modernism in East Asia is characterised by the authoritarian reflex of planning rationality, which gives paramount political weight to a collectivist and unitary idea of the public good which is crafted through performative technicality in constructing the impartiality and objectivity of public authority. I explore this rationality through two case studies: national planning around power shortage and reserve margins, and the setting of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy. By way of contrast, I then explore a third case study: the development of combined PV energy, agriculture and aquaculture initiatives in Linbian and Jiadong. I suggest that can this give us clues about an alternative, grassroots ‘indigenist-reformist rationality’ imaginary for Taiwan which reassembles and enacts an indigenous identity rooted in attachment to land and locality.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Yang, Chihyuan","Wynne, Brian","Szerszynski, Bronislaw"],"institution":"Lancaster University","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2018,"date_issued":"2018","date_published":"2018","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:48:43Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":null,"outbound_label":null,"outbound_source":null},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Yang, Chihyuan","Wynne, Brian","Szerszynski, Bronislaw"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2018"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2018"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.commercial","label":"Dc Publisher Commercial","values":["Lancaster University"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Sociology"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["Lancaster University"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby","values":["https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/126163/"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["doctoral"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationname","label":"Dc Type Qualificationname","values":["Ph.D."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/126163/1/2018ChihyuanYangPhD.pdf"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, an outcry erupted in Taiwanese society demanding a sustainable energy transition. However, the dominant sociotechnical imagination in postwar Taiwan – developmental high modernism – manifests itself in tacit answers to the questions of what a better society should be, how technical choices should be made to achieve that goal, and what the most pragmatic and viable approach is to make the particular dreamed-of future become reality. Using an approach informed by STS/SSK (sociology of scientific knowledge), this thesis explores the exclusion of alternative energy futures brought about by a high modernist imaginary and looks into its nationalist-high modernist rationality in the forms of shared story-lines, created factuality and routinised technical choices within governmental institutions. High modernism in East Asia is characterised by the authoritarian reflex of planning rationality, which gives paramount political weight to a collectivist and unitary idea of the public good which is crafted through performative technicality in constructing the impartiality and objectivity of public authority. I explore this rationality through two case studies: national planning around power shortage and reserve margins, and the setting of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy. By way of contrast, I then explore a third case study: the development of combined PV energy, agriculture and aquaculture initiatives in Linbian and Jiadong. I suggest that can this give us clues about an alternative, grassroots ‘indigenist-reformist rationality’ imaginary for Taiwan which reassembles and enacts an indigenous identity rooted in attachment to land and locality."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Sociotechnical imaginary and rationality : political factuality and public authority in Taiwanese energy politics"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Yang, Chihyuan","Wynne, Brian","Szerszynski, Bronislaw"],"dc:date":["2018"],"dc:date.issued":["2018"],"dc:description.abstract":["After the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, an outcry erupted in Taiwanese society demanding a sustainable energy transition. However, the dominant sociotechnical imagination in postwar Taiwan – developmental high modernism – manifests itself in tacit answers to the questions of what a better society should be, how technical choices should be made to achieve that goal, and what the most pragmatic and viable approach is to make the particular dreamed-of future become reality. Using an approach informed by STS/SSK (sociology of scientific knowledge), this thesis explores the exclusion of alternative energy futures brought about by a high modernist imaginary and looks into its nationalist-high modernist rationality in the forms of shared story-lines, created factuality and routinised technical choices within governmental institutions. High modernism in East Asia is characterised by the authoritarian reflex of planning rationality, which gives paramount political weight to a collectivist and unitary idea of the public good which is crafted through performative technicality in constructing the impartiality and objectivity of public authority. I explore this rationality through two case studies: national planning around power shortage and reserve margins, and the setting of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy. By way of contrast, I then explore a third case study: the development of combined PV energy, agriculture and aquaculture initiatives in Linbian and Jiadong. I suggest that can this give us clues about an alternative, grassroots ‘indigenist-reformist rationality’ imaginary for Taiwan which reassembles and enacts an indigenous identity rooted in attachment to land and locality."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/126163/1/2018ChihyuanYangPhD.pdf"],"dc:publisher.commercial":["Lancaster University"],"dc:publisher.department":["Sociology"],"dc:publisher.institution":["Lancaster University"],"dc:relation.isreferencedby":["https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/126163/"],"dc:title":["Sociotechnical imaginary and rationality : political factuality and public authority in Taiwanese energy politics"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["doctoral"],"dc:type.qualificationname":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:48:43Z"}