STS and Area Studies: A Social Network Perspective

The focus of this article is to explore how regional academic networks, including balanced global and local relationships, can contribute to the development of science, technology, and science studies and area studies in Asia. On the one hand, local scholars can employ global connections to pursue continuous collaborative academic activities from a region to the world, to learn various information, and to address local issues all over the world. On the other hand, local researchers can utilize local networks to organize locally significant research topics, to create a platform for theory building with regard to specific social contexts, and to create research synergy at different spatial scales.