ACADEMIC CV

CHING HUNG（洪靖）

Adjunct Assistant Professor, National University of Kaohsiung / Feng Chia University / Nanhua University, Taiwan.
PhD, Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, Netherlands.
Columnist on design, technology, and society for magazines and websites in Taiwan and China.

BACKGROUND

With broad interests, I have been moving from one discipline to another. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in Nuclear Science (2006), I turned to history and philosophy of science and technology and, with the concern for environmental sustainability, completed a master's thesis on design for green building and appropriate technology, arguing that the unsuccessful promotion of green architecture (as well as appropriate technology) results mainly from focusing exclusively on making buildings environment-friendly and overlooking humans as the root of the problems. The thesis has earned me a master's degree in STS (science and technology studies)(2009). Then I again shifted to Sociology for one-year doctoral training (2012-13). Equipped with college-level knowledge in natural sciences (e.g. biology and chemistry) and social sciences (e.g. psychology and history), in addition to the specialties above, I enjoy very much going beyond the boundary of each discipline and keep looking for an integration of their approaches to the same research problem.

DOCTORAL RESEARCH

With my master's thesis defending buildings could and should be designed to encourage people's pro-environmental behavior, I have been asked often about the role of human beings in such a relation to technology and what kind of politics implied by those "powerful" artifacts. To answer these questions, I turned to the field of philosophy of technology and moved from Taiwan to the Netherlands in September 2013, joining the Department of Philosophy at the University of Twente as a PhD student. In the light of the theory of technological mediation, I am now doing research on how technology's mediating power can be justified and practised as a political force in improving sustainability without overthrowing democracy. Besides the philosophy of technological mediation, I also mobilize several ideas from various fields, including the behavioristic understanding of human beings by B. F. Skinner from psychology, the nudge theory concerning the freedom of choice by Cass Sunstein from behavioral economics, the suggestion of piecemeal engineering by Karl Popper from philosophy of science, and the agonistic interpretation of democracy by Chantal Mouffe from political philosophy. Taking the advantages of and eliminating the inconsistencies between them, my aim in writing a dissertation is to re-configure humans as relational beings preconditioned by built environments (without losing autonomy) and to propose a better democratic framework in accommodating such human beings on the one hand and making room for technologies as active members for our green collective on the other. In addition to the theoretical concern, I also work on constructing design strategies that could ease ethical worries on modifying people's behaviors through technical artifacts, which hopefully would be helpful for defending such design practices.

PROMOTER AND SUPERVISOR

Prof. dr. ir. Peter-Paul Verbeek and Dr. Michael Nagenborg

PUBLICATIONS

Doctoral Dissertation

Hung, C. (2019). Design for Green: Ethics and Politics for Behavior-Steering Technology. Enschede, Netherlands: University of Twente. [Awarded Excellent Doctoral Dissertation by Taiwan STS Association]

Master's Thesis

Hung, C. (2009). Sustainable Building and Appropriate Technology: How to Reshape Modern Users and Society. Hsinchu, Taiwan: National Tsing Hua University. [In Chinese]

Book Chapters

Hung, C. (2021). Technological Mediation in and for Confucianism-Based Cultures. In P.-K. Wong & X. Wang (Eds.), Harmonious Technology: A Confucian Ethics of Technology (pp.50-65). London, UK: Routledge.
Hung, C. (2014). A Report on Anti-Nuclear Activities in Taiwan and an STS Analysis. In W.-J. Wang, D. Fu, & M.-F. Fang (Eds.), Taiwan: An Island Swamped in Technological Controversies (pp.95-123). Hsinchu, Taiwan: National Chiao Tung University Press. [In Chinese]
Hung, C. (2014). Architecture and Society: How a Green Design Improves a Sustainable Life. In J.-T. Chen, K.-Y. Yang, K.-H. Lo, W.-Y. Lin, & Y.-P. Chen (Eds.), Technology, Society and Human Beings II (pp.248-260). Taipei, Taiwan: National Chiao Tung University Press. [In Chinese]
Hung, C. (2010). The Birth of the First Robot Image in Taiwanese Sci-Fi Comic Books, 1950-1970. In C.-Y. Fang, K.-Y. Yang, W.-Y. Lin, & Y.-P. Chen (Eds.), Technology, Society and Human Beings I (pp.140-155). Hsinchu, Taiwan: National Chiao Tung University Press. [In Chinese]

Journal Articles

Hung, C. & Jia, L. (2020). From Assessment to Design: What Is Really Needed in Technology Accompaniment to Achieve Subject Constitution?. Frontiers of Philosophy in China 15(1): 73-92.

Conference Papers

Hung, C. (2020). Design, Power, and Democracy: Revisiting Technological Politics. Presented at the 2020 Taiwan STS Annual Conference, Hsinchu, Taiwan. [In Chinese]
Hung, C. (2018). Preserving Freedom? Revisit Ethical Solutions to Behavior-Steering Technology. Presented at the World Congress of Philosophy 2018, Beijing, China. [In Chinese]
Hung, C. (2018). The Soft is Hard, the Hard is Soft: A Classification and Ethical Concerns for Behavior-Steering Technology. Presented at the 2018 Taiwan STS Annual Conference, Tainan, Taiwan. [In Chinese]
Hung, C. (2018). Revisit the Story of "Do Artifacts Have Politics?". Poster at the 2018 Taiwan STS Annual Conference, Tainan, Taiwan. [In Chinese]
Hung, C. (2015). B.F. Skinner's Philosophy of Technology and Technological Mediation. Presented at the 2015 Biennial Meeting of Society for Philosophy and Technology, Shenyang, China.
Hung, C. (2014). Beyond Heideggerian Criticism toward Technology: The Implications of Dutch Society-Oriented Philosophy of Technology for STS in Taiwan. Presented at the 2014 Taiwan STS Annual Conference, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Hung, C. (2013). Completing Environmental Education with Artifact Design: An Integrated Perspective of STS and Philosophy of Technology. Presented at the International Conference on Social Environmental Education for an Emerging Eco-Civilization, Taipei, Taiwan. [In Chinese]

Book Reviews

Hung, C. (2020). Dis- and Re-connecting Kuhn, SSK and STS: A Review on A Genealogical History of STS and Its Multiple Constructions. Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine, No.31, pp.203-211. [In Chinese]
Hung, C. (2015). Moralized Technology and Technologized Morality: A Book Review on Verbeek's Moralizing Technology. Taiwanese Journal for Studies of Science, Technology and Medicine, No.20, pp.223-234. [In Chinese]

Translation

Jobin, P. (2014). Radiation Protection after 3.11: Conflicts of Interpretation and Challenges to Current Standards Based on the Experience of Nuclear Plant Workers. In M.-F. Fang, T.-T. Lin, H.-C. Li, Y.-P. Chen, &J.-T. Chen (Eds.), Citizen Power: Energy Technology, Policy and Democracy (pp. 160-199). Hsinchu, Taiwan: National Chiao Tung University Press. [In Chinese]

PRESENTATIONS (WITH ABSTRACT ONLY)

Hung, C. (2018). Becoming a Collective Through Body: Memory, Behavior, and Architecture. Workshop on Memory and Ethics in the Digital Age in Shanghai, China.
Hung, C. (2017). Technological Mediation on Memory: An Exploration. Workshop on The Digital Age & Memory Studies in Shanghai, China.
Hung, C. (2017). Technologizing Democracy toward/and/or Democratizing Technology. The 2017 Biennial Meeting of Society for Philosophy and Technology, Darmstadt, Germany.
Hung, C. (2017). Architecture as Persuasive Technology. Persuasive Technology XII in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Hung, C. (2016). How Mediating Technologies Work? A Preliminary Categorization and Some Misunderstandings. Conference on Technology and Design in Shanghai, China.
Hung, C. (2016). Psychologist B.F. Skinner's Philosophy of Technology and Its Implication for Technological Mediation Theory. 2nd Japanese-Dutch Workshop in Philosophy of Technology in Kanazawa, Japan.
Hung, C. (2015). Psychologist B.F. Skinner as a Philosopher of Technology for STS. 40th 4S Anniversary Meeting in Denver, USA.
Hung, C. (2014). To Techno-Nudge in East Asian Context: A Cultural Possibility. Japanese-Dutch Workshop in Philosophy of Technology at the University of Twente, Netherlands.
Hung, C. (2014). Environmental Protection with Technological Mediation: A Research Proposal. 2014 Harvest Meeting at the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, Netherlands.

INVITED TALK

"Politics or Morality: Design Dilemma of Behavior-Steering Technology". 24-25 March, 2020. Center for General Education, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
"Technology and Humanity: From Behavioral Economics to Philosophy of Technology". 2 January, 2020. Graduate Institute of National Development, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
"The Crisis for the Environment or Humanity? How to R-conceive Freedom and Democracy through Philosophy of Technology". 5 December, 2019. Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
"Penetration, Junction, or Hybridization? Building and Blurring the Boundary between Things and Humans". 24 April, 2019. Graduate Institute of Technological & Vocational Education, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
"From 'Thing Power' to 'Thing Rule': How Technologies Shape Human Behavior". 24 April, 2019. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
"Artifacts' Politics or Humans' Freedom: The Intersection between Science & Technology Studies and Philosophy of Technology". 20 November, 2018. Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
"From 'What Is Technology?' to 'What Technologies Do?': The Dutch School in Philosophy of Technology". 31 October, 2018. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
"Do Artifacts Have Morality? Things' Design and Humans' Behavior". 6 November, 2017. Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School, Taichung, Taiwan.
"Designing Behavior: How I Stopped Worrying and Love Behavior-Steering Technology". 27 October, 2017. Institute of STS, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
"Technologized Morality: Ethical and Political Concerns on Behavior Design". 20 October, 2017. Faculty of Social Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.

AWARDS

Excellent Doctoral Dissertation, Taiwan STS Association (2020).
Studying Abroad Scholarship, Taiwan Ministry of Education (2013)
Delta/NTIO Joint Environmental Scholarship (2012)
Enrollment Scholarship of PhD Program, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing-Hua University (2012).