Social Sciences and Humanities in Argentina: cycles and circuits

GUSTAVO SORÁ; FERNANDA BEIGEL

París

Congreso; The institutionalization and the internationalization of the SSH Final conference of the European project INTERCO-SSH; 2017

CNRS

Argentina is an interesting case with which to explore the institutionalization and professionalization of the social sciences and humanities outside the traditional ?centers of excellence.? It is a field that, in the last ten years, has experienced an impressive expansion of its research capacities, leading to rapid scientific development and increasing internationalization. As in other historical periods (1958?1966, for example), recently Argentina?s academic institutions grew to a size that led it to become a significant international academic node. Nevertheless, as has happened in the past, expansion phases are interrupted by the change of political and economic conditions for scientific activity. The new government, a right-wing coalition, has questioned the expansion of full-time researchers at the main public agency, the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET, its Spanish acronym) and has made a major cut in the budget for science and technology. In order to understand the singularity of this type of ?peripheral-center,? it is pertinent to describe the cycles of expansion and contraction, institutionalization and de-institutionalization. It is also crucial to observe the impact of these cycles on the development of circuits of production and circulation of SSH knowledge; some clearly internationalized and others rather nationally-oriented. The main task of this work is to describe the current state of research capacity in the SSH resulting from the recent expansion, in order to analyze the co-existing and diverse principles of legitimation.