Federalización de la ciencia y la tecnología en la Argentina. Una revisión de iniciativas de territorialización y planificación regional (1996-2007)

Abstract

El propósito del artículo es explorar y caracterizar las iniciativas de territorialización y planificación regional en el sistema científico nacional entre los años 1996-2007. En particular, se explora: ¿Qué objetivos persiguen las políticas de regionalización? ¿Cuál es el contexto socio-político de las iniciativas? y ¿Cómo se estructura el entramado institucional en el proceso de regionalización? Se analizaron fuentes documentales y entrevistas semiestructuradas a informantes clave del ámbito académico y político. Los hallazgos muestran que entre 1996 y 2007 se crean estructuras regionales de planificación y desarrollo territorial en el marco de una política nacional de federalización, con una distribución de recursos y transferencia de atribuciones jurídico-institucionales. Sin embargo, su configuración como unidades descentralizadas con capacidades efectivas de gestión está fuertemente ligada a las estructuras y culturas organizaciones de cada uno de los organismos bajo análisis.

During the last decades it has generated important transformations worldwide (Connell, 2004) regarding the way of conceiving the production of scientific knowledge. Connell (2004) argues that major changes in the level of research take two directions: increasing opportunities for partnerships and cross-border partnerships and greater incentives for innovation (Connell, 2004). One of the most visible elements of this process of change can clearly be seen when the new competitive responsibilities assumed by scientific research institutions to raise funds for Research and Development (I + D) are analyzed. These changes meant a strong redefinition of the relevance of scientific knowledge for the purposes of economic development. Science, technology and innovation have become REVISTA DE ESTUDIOS REGIONALES Nº 108, I.S.S.N.: 0213-7585 (2017), PP. 63-85 2 GISELLE GONZÁLEZ REVISTA DE ESTUDIOS REGIONALES Nº 108, I.S.S.N.: 0213-7585 (2017), PP. 63-85 elements whose effects contribute to changing the lives of citizens. From this perspective is value model science as socio-cultural practice as an activity of translation or interpretation of nature and society that tries to show how the space of production and circulation of scientific knowledge is created (Sanz Menendez and Santesmases, 1996). Science and technology appear as a “cultural product characterized by its dynamism, its multiplier effect and its social nature” (Sabato, 1994). In this context, public policies seek to organize effectively the research and development capabilities with a view to greater overlap between institutions and territory. The change is based on the “translation of research into products and new ventures” (Etzkowitz, Webster and Healey, 1998: 1 in Rovelli, 2015). The so-called model of the “Triple Helix”, developed by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (1997), for example recasts the role of research within the university-industry-government triad postulated crosslinking and to the dilution of the boundaries between them and predicts growth of a spiral model of innovation that interrelates practical and theoretical issues in the interstices of rigid demarcations of the past (Rovelli, 2015). From this model, the national state is not the only actor in the definition of public policies on science and technology. International credit agencies, the supra-state or regional institutions, instances of local political power and the market in its various configurations, are major actors in the process of designing and implementing policy change science, technology and innovation. Argentina has not been exempt from these trends. Research policy and research policies focused on increased social use of science and technology from the institution of structures and coordination of resources and capabilities between them. In particular, he appealed to the definition of structuring systems of land management, as delegated public service, which organizes land use from the distribution of research capabilities and development consistent with a regional approach.