Deepening the Field, Raising the Stakes: Generating Technologies for Inclusive and Sustainable Development

• In Event: Making and Doing: Activating STS through Knowledge Expression and Travel - II

Abstract

This paper presents the lessons from projects that direct research agendas toward policy agendas. In a co-construction dynamic, the problem agenda, knowledge generation, researchers' concerns and activities, and the very notion of a researcher changed for us. Using a reflexive methodology, we analyze three concurrent dynamics: 1) modifying the research agenda; 2) adding the capability to design public policies; and 3) broadening the team’s capabilities as direct implementers of public policies. We explore two cases. The first team activities designing, implementing, and evaluating the National Program of Technologies for Social Inclusion (PROCODAS). This case reveals potentialities, constraints, and challenges in a new kind of praxis: STS researcher as policy maker. The second case examines the design and implementation of project “DAPED” (Right to Access to Goods: Water for Development). This project sought to generate the actual dynamics of local development in poor rural regions of the Argentine north. It worked as a “lab,” valuable for designing new public policies and public instruments for the national ministries of science and technology and social development. In this case, researchers directly executed the local development project, and, hence, linked the knowledge generated in the field to the possibility of changing public policies. The praxis: STS researcher as policy maker and policy practitioner. We conclude with reflections on new conceptual developments, processes of reflexivity and hybridization for researchers, modifications of research agendas, and the necessary expansion of networking.

Authors

• Hernan Thomas, Institute of Science and Technology Studies - National University of Quilmes

• Lucas Dardo Becerra, IESCT-UNQ (Institute of Science and Technology Studies - Universidad Nacional de Quilmes) / CONICET

• Paula Juarez, Institute of Science and Technology Studies - National University of Quilmes