The Subordinate Integration in the Production and Circulation of Knowledge: Origin, Development and Rewritings

Abstract

We understand subordinateintegration, in the scientific field, as a type of complex social relationshipbetween researchers and/or research groups located in contexts of differentrelative development and degrees of freedom, where epistemic, institutional,resource availability, issues related to geopolitical asymmetries, modes ofknowledge production and use, technological changes and the morphologies ofdifferent fields of knowledge intervene. It is therefore to be expected thatthis relationship will change as these dimensions evolve over time. In what follows, I will first present a brief analysis of the interpretationof the concept of subordinate integration in relation to the notions of centresand peripheries, since these are closely related concepts, briefly reviewingthe genesis of the concept and its consequences for thinking about the issuefrom a Latin American perspective. Then, in the following section, I willexamine the different possible uses of the concept in the study of scientificdynamics and its analytical consequences for the observation of theinternational division of scientific work, as well as for the politicaldimensions of science and technology. Finally, I will analyze its effect on theeffective use (both in the social and productive sense) of locally producedscientific knowledge.