• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.155-195
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• 2017

The goal of the present study is reviewing the literature on the scientific community and also on science, technology & society to increase interactions between innovation studies and social studies of science and technology. Up until now, various empirical studies on Korean scientists and engineers have been concentrated on researchers at universities, while they have paid inadequate attention to researchers at state-funded research institutes and private companies. In addition, these studies have tended to use concepts in Western academia to elucidate Korean cases. On the other hand, recent empirical researches on the effects of the evaluation systems in universities, PBS system, and the network of school ties suggest that these topics may reveal the unique characteristics of Korean scientific community. Empirical studies on the scientific community have also shown that Korean research institutes and researchers who are in charge of innovation in Korea have demonstrated a tendency to conform to the government's guidance due to long experiences of state-led R&D and nationalism. Research on science, technology and society has viewed the participation of citizens in science and technology as a way toward science and technology democracy, and tended to have a strong practical orientation. However, there has been a relatively small amount of research on how citizen participation influences the direction and content of technological innovation. Also, although, from the viewpoint of technological innovation, how participation of citizens in science and technology can contribute to knowledge production and innovation is a critical issue, relatively small numbers of case studies on this subject have been conducted. Therefore, as the scholars who have emphasized the democracy of science and technology have actually experimented with various ways of citizen participation, innovation researchers may have to design and implement citizen participation through which citizens' local knowledge can contribute to technological innovation.