International Ties at Peripheral Sites: Co-producing Social Processes and Scientific Knowledge in Latin America

RODRÍGEZ MEDINA, LEANDRO; FERPOZZI, HUGO; LAYNA, JUAN; MARTIN VALDEZ, EMILIANO; KREIMER, PABLO

Science as Culture

Taylor and Francis

Año: 2019 vol. 27 p. 1 - 27

0950-5431

In recent decades, scientific knowledge has been increasinglyexpected to contribute to the resolution of public andcontroversial issues in Latin America. However, in peripheralsites of knowledge and economic production, the dynamicsof both science and society have been complicated bytensions between the demands of local stakeholders and theties with the global centers of technical and scientificexpertise. First, local public issues are often addressed inmerely discursive ways, rather than effectively, in research andexpert advice; second, local scientific elites often establishlinks with experts and the global centers of science in order tolegitimate their stance against competing approaches. Ananalysis of four case studies (neglected diseases, miningpollution, wildlife conservation and migration studies)involving the production of scientific knowledge intended toaddress public issues in Latin America reveals, first, thatmaterial and symbolic asymmetries determine the outcomesof these engagements and, second, that international tieswith peripheral sites affect the cognitive definition of theissues at stake and the range of public interventions devisedto address them. Yet, in these four case studies, the key actorsthat mediate links between local stakeholders andinternational counterparts ? or, ?drivers? ? mobilize the bodiesof knowledge that, ultimately, shape the cognitive andpolitical contours of the social issues at stake.