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

CABA

Congreso; XIV Congreso Nacional de Ciencia Política; 2019

SAAP

This paper addressed research internationalpartnerships by observing research collaboration dynamics of InternationalRelations research groups of MERCOSUR. We move beyond commonly usedbibliometric assessments to delimit avenues of future research and we contestthe models based on center-peripheryor North-South divide. We built ourassessment to explain the collaboration dynamics both in an international andregional level from the agent?s point of view. We demonstrate that despiteasymmetries, researchers from the South do not have a passive role in theinteractions and exchanges, as there is space for reciprocity and agency. We arguethat integration of research through international partnerships is pragmaticand the condition of autonomy varies according to the features of the groups,their positions within the field and the prestige of their researchers. Wemoved beyond Scientometric analysis and conducted an exploratory case studywith interviews, a focus group and a questionnaire