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One meaning of the "Taiwanization" of social science is that the subjects we investigate are social, political, economic, cultural and other
phenomena located in Taiwan. Everyone would agree with this first meaning. Most of the papers given at the NATSA conference do just this. But a second purpose of any social science is, after describing some
Taiwan phenomenon, practice, belief, etc., to try to EXPLAIN it. Social scientists have a variety of conceptions of what "explanation" consists of. One basic conception is that when one has
shown that the variation in some phenomenon,X,is related to, or covaries with, variation in another set of conditions, Y, then Y may be said to have "explained" X.
Whatever your view of "explanation" may be, you are probably aware that scholars of Taiwan differ on the issue of whether we can or should use Western theories to explain the topics we study. Some
Taiwan scholars, including some who present papers at our annual NATSC meetings, appear to be quite content, even enthusiastic, about using theories or concepts first developed in the West to account for,
explain, what they have observed in Taiwan. But other Taiwan scholars seem to take the position that Taiwan research is too dependent on Western theories for its explanations. They seem to be calling
for
new theories and explanations, generated in Taiwan by Taiwan scholars. Therefore, we welcome papers that present an explanation of some phenomenon, observation, data, etc. that is
not from past or present Western(European, North American) theories but from a Taiwan perspective.
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