중국의 사회변천에 대한 응답 -『개방시대』를 중심으로-

Abstract

This paper aims to examine how scholars are responding academically to changes in the Chinese society and what role academic journals can play in turning current social agendas that arise from social changes into academic agendas by focusing on the academic journal Open Times. Numerous academic journals on social sciences are being published in mainland China today but there are still no comprehensive studies being carried out that deal with real problems from a general interdisciplinary viewpoint. Open Times, published by the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, is an academic journal that sits just outside the fence of the academia, and by focusing on the practical problems facing China after the mid-1990’s, it is spreading the frontline debate on the issue of theory and practice in the academia. Open Times is pursuing its vision of “paying close attention to and participating in society with scholarship” through such efforts as maintaining a system of author composition divided equally into three parts among well-known scholars, young scholars including Ph. D. candidates, and overseas scholars; a “special topic” system through which social agendas are selected as topics for scholarly research; and organizing “Open Times Forums.” The academic activities of Open Times are an effort to go beyond the west-centric theoretical framework of western sciences and understand the context and complexity of social changes in China from a Chinese perspective.