“Latin America in the International Division of Scientific Research. A General Analysis and Three Case Studies

PABLO KREIMER

Viena

Simposio; International Conference “Latin American and European Perspectives on the Social Science – Policymaking Nexus in the Knowledge Society”; 2009

Centre for Social Innovation.

Internationalization has been a dimension present since the origins of scientific research in Latin American countries. Indeed, it is possible to observe that the institutionalization and development of ‘modern’ scientific fields –specially by the end of 19th  century and the beginnings of 20th – has been strongly linked to the relationships established by local researchers with the ‘leaders’ of each discipline in Europe. This happened through the visit or establishment of European ‘voyageurs’ to Latin America, or through the stages of Latin American scientists abroad. The first stage was somewhat of a ‘founding internationalization’.Once the disciplines already established in local institutions, the links between scientists changed in its nature: the settle of research agendas and conceptual and methodological innovation are in the core of a strong ‘national-local’ tension. It corresponds to a second stage, that we called ‘liberal internationalization’. After World War II, and as a consequence of R&D policies –and the instrument for international scientific cooperation- the links became more ‘formal’ and ‘institutionalized’; it’s a period that we called ‘liberal-oriented internationalization’.But, since the last quarter of 20th century, these relationships changed again. If during the precedent periods the negotiations between ‘central’ and ‘peripheral’ scientists gave little room to the latter to establish their own cognitive interests, now the collaboration links have the form of a ‘take it or leave it’ contract. One could think in a paradox: the scientific élite of non-hegemonic countries are growingly invited to take part of international scientific consortia, but the accessing conditions are growingly restricted and the ‘marges de manoeuvre’ within negotiations tend to zero.I intend to show, in this paper, to approach the emerging situation, the so-called ‘international division of scientific work’ (Kreimer, 2007, Kreimer et Meyer, 2008) that could take the form of a very ‘subcontrating’ analogue –and different- to the industrial delocalization from central to peripheral countries. To illustrate this configuration we will show three different cases in Argentina: Plasma Physics in the Universidad del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, scientific research on Chagas disease and the research on the relationships between gulls and whales in Patagonian area.