A Case Study Of Technical Standard Based On Actor Network Theory

Under technical economy globalization's background, science and technology becomes"the first productive force". Grasping the technical standard means to control the technical economy words power. Therefore, it is a very concerned question to a national and a enterprise how to be the technical standard's maker. Formerly the technical economy explaination on the technical standard formation was too rational and camouflaged complex scene in the technical standard formation. This article returns to fact's manner, take the WAPI technical standard as the case, analysis technical standard's formation mechanism from Actor-network of view.The research has discovered that the WAPI technical standard's formation involves numerous neterogeny actors including government, enterprise, development facility, International Standardization Organization, language, media and so on. Its formation has experienced a very winding process. The Chinese government as the core actor by regular administrative method forcefully recruited members, but defeated. It adopted preliminary"circuitous"strategy to attempt WAPI the international standard instead of the object which was recruited. Further"circuitous"strategy of establishing the industrial alliance caused"translation"to obtain success, WAPI has become fact standard, has become"the compulsion general spot"to orthers. In further philosophy discusses based on the WAPI case study, sophistication, compatibility and the maturation are the technical standard typical characteristic; The technical standard is also one kind of local knowledge depending on all sorts of situations. It is constructed by the actor-network, its formation follows"the index"logic, the result is a kind of relation between actors and situations in which inserts. Once technical standard forms, it presents one objective and universal knowledge's image, originally complex relational into nothing. This article proposes some constructive suggestion on forming technical standard for China, one of the developing contries: the government impels positively and participat; the independent innovation and certain strategy unify; through industrial alliance establishes fact standard.