Abstract
This paper examines the process of importing scientific institutions from overseas by focusing on the practice of benchmarking for the establishment of the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea. Launched in 2011, the IBS aimed to play a central role in nurturing the new ecology of knowledge to the community of basic science researchers in Korea, just like the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG), Rikagaku Kenkyūjo (RIKEN), and Organisation europeenne pour la recherche nucleaire (CERN). Taking MPG, RIKEN, and CERN as desirable models for basic science, the IBS actively drew upon a particular memory about their developments. This paper traces the ways in which the MPG, RIKEN, and CERN were remembered in South Korea through the practice of benchmarking, which reveal the multi-faceted politics embodied in the formation of the IBS. For example, it highlights how the rising claim on the discovery of a new element in Japan and the changing ecology of R&D system in South Korea influenced the shaping of IBS’s identity. By considering benchmarking as a particular means of remembering the past, this paper underlines the historicity and politics of remembering the past and their meanings in understanding the role of basic science in Korea.
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