Political Instabilities and Dual Institutionalization of R&D activities in Argentina (1930-1960)

HURTADO, D.

Londres

Seminario; Research Seminar; 2011

Institute for the Studies of the Americas-University of London

Between the early 1930s and the late 1950s, the institutional organization of R&D activities in Argentina was shaped by two diverging representations of science and technology. One of them, embodied by influential representatives of the Argentine scientific community ?such as the physiologist Bernardo Houssay, Nobel Prize awarded in 1947?, promoted autonomy, freedom of research, and scientific internationalism. On the other hand, during the period of the rise and decline of Juan Perón (1943-1955), the government sought to integrate science and technology into a State-planned economy. Within this view, science and technology should be oriented to the solution of "national problems". The final result of this confrontation was a dual institutional complex guided by two divergent ideologies. I intend to summarize this process and to analyze some of its consequences.