Abstract
Inspired by the Science, Technology and Society (STS) studies, this article examines how the state-society relationship and relationship among engineering-hiking communities shaped the transformation of technological paradigm of mountain trails in Taiwan. Before 2002, the authority of design and construction of mountain trails is controlled by the state technocrats and landscape architecture professionals. Under the "national landscape model", the trail is taken as the infrastructure of tourist industry and its design is regarded as the symbol of nationalist identity. Until 2002, the protests of hiking associations changed the state-society relationship and forced the engineering communities to develop a more sustainable alternative of trail construction and conservation. The alternative model, we called it "civil participation model," introduced the ideas from Ecological Engineering and the volunteers from hiking clubs and trail researchers for design and conservation of mountain trails. The case studies of civil participation on the changes of trails' building illustrated the impact of social movement on the shift of technological paradigm in Taiwan.