Science, Politics/Policy and the Cold War in Argentina: From Concepts to Institutional Models in the 1950s and ´60s

FELD, ADRIANA

Minerva A Review of Science, Learning and Policy

Springer

Año: 2019 vol. 57 p. 523 - 547

0026-4695

This paper analyses how the Cold War influenced the discourses on basic science and on Science and Technology Policies (STPs) of some leaders of the Argentine research community. It explores two key intersections to study the Cold War: the first between politics and policies; the second between the global and the regional/national. The basic assumption is that, just as there was no one Cold War, specific regional and national traits lent specific meanings to basic research. In dialogue with the literature on Latin American history of STPs, on the cultural Cold War and on the conceptual history of science, the paper identifies three discursive configurations around S&T: the first refers to the semi-peripheral scientific context; the second is associated with the "democracy-totalitarianism" dichotomy, and the third is linked to the "development-dependence" dichotomy. Finally, the paper also traces some connections between these discourses and the institutional models proposed by different key actors of the research community to implement STPs.