• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.6 no.2 s.12
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• pp.131-183
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• 2006

The Korean genetics and genomics reveal a firm willingness to participate in and contribute to the production of creative scientific knowledge at a world level at present, though they have short past histories of introduction from the Western counterparts and those of education for the next generations. But the Korean genetics and genomics have been developed in a fragmented and biased manner. By reconfiguring the various research projects of genomics into the Genome Project of Korea, which reflect a worldly trend in life science, but have been established in a scattered fashion in Korea, and incorporating some neglected areas of genetics, such as human genetics and theoretical and population genetics which can be reconstructed in a new way, a genetics-genomics research system can be formulated on the multi-tiered perspective of concept, knowledge, and institution, while the system being a subsystem of the national research system of life science in Korea. Innovation can be pursued in the systematic practice through a culturalist strategy. The culturalist strategy with the practice based on the research system consists of 1) intensification of fundamentalness of genetics and genomics, 2) advancement of communitarianism in geneticist-genomicist community, 3) research on the cultural bio-species along with the promotion of scientific arts and culture, and 4)formation of the Korean science studies of genetics-genomics and the diffusion of the knowledge produced. The first two strategy components are the ones that intends to bring out changes in the structural aspect of the scientist community in Korea. The third is the one that attempts to magnify the interface between the scientist community and the Korean society at large and increase its connectivity between both, while the fourth is the one that has an intentionality toward the Korean society outside of the scientist community. This culturalist strategy is intended to increase the cultural constructivity of the genetics-genomics research system in Korea.