Industrial Psychology in Modern China

FAIN: FT-278463-21

Victor Seow
President and Fellows of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA 02138-3800)

Writing of a book on the history of industrial psychology in China, from its inception in the 1930s to the present.

This project involves the research and writing of an academically rigorous yet accessible book on the history of industrial psychology in China, from its inception in the 1930s to the present. At the broadest level, this project is interested in exploring how work became and functioned as a subject of scientific inquiry and how sciences of work such as industrial psychology shaped and was shaped by larger societal understandings about the meaning and value of work. Grounded in a bounty of archival materials, an array of published sources, and a range of oral histories, The Human Factor will trace the history of industrial psychology as a technology of production in China, showing how the development of this field of study sat at the intersection of changes in science, industry, and labor over the course of almost a century. Along the way, it sets out to examine shifting assumptions and contentions about what work is and what it should be.