Cross-national research partnerships in International Relations: a study of research groups? practices of MERCOSUR. Re-envisioning scholarly activities beyond the Global North ? Global South divide

DANIELA PERROTTA; MAURO ALONSO

Journal of Studies in International Education

SAGE Publications

Año: 2019

1028-3153

This paper addressed research international partnerships byobserving research collaboration dynamics of International Relations researchgroups of MERCOSUR. We move beyond commonly used bibliometric assessments todelimit avenues of future research and we contest the models based on center-periphery or North-South divide. We built our assessment to explain thecollaboration dynamics both in an international and regional level from theagent?s point of view. We demonstrate that despite asymmetries, researchersfrom the South do not have a passive role in the interactions and exchanges, asthere is space for reciprocity and agency. We argue that integration ofresearch through international partnerships is pragmatic and the condition ofautonomy varies according to the features of the groups, their positions withinthe field and the prestige of their researchers. We moved beyond Scientometricanalysis and conducted an exploratory case study with interviews, a focus groupand a questionnaire.  Keywords: Research collaboration, InternationalRelations, MERCOSUR, North, South, Centre, Periphery