Rethinking the East Asian Distinction: An Example of Taiwan's Harm Reduction Policy

Abstract

How do we make sense of East Asian STS studies? This article traces the debates on this theme in earlier issues of East Asian Science, Technology and Society and analyzes the different perspectives displayed. The author addresses the so-called East Asian distinction by proposing a theoretical approach based on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's notion of assemblages, which differs significantly from Latourian actor network theory. The concept's analytic advantages are illustrated by a case study of Taiwan's campaign to stem HIV transmission among injection drug users. It is hoped that the assemblage approach may enrich the scholarly repertoire of theory and encourage more studies that address the intricate relations among science, politics, culture, and policies.

Keywords:

• actor network theory
• assemblages
• East Asian distinction
• harm reduction
• HIV

Acknowledgments

A preliminary draft of this paper was presented in the 2010 annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). Professors Daiwie Fu and Ruey-Lin Chen offered insightful ideas that markedly improved the paper. I also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their precious comments.