ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The advocacy coalitions promoting university education in Systems Analysis, Informatics, and Computing (ASIC) in Argentina between 1963 and 1986: An approach from history and political science

• In Event: HPS Across Borders

English Abstract

By the early 1960s, Argentina had developed a scientific-technological foundation in electronics and computing. The number of electronic engineers increased, and between 1967 and 1970 the number of computers in public administration, banks, universities, and industry doubled. A 1973 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report identified Argentina as the Latin American leader in the Computer Industry Development Potential index. This emerging environment aligned with political interest in organizing science and technology within a broader development planning strategy. International actors such as the Intergovernmental Bureau for Informatics (IBI) and IBM played significant roles. The chapter examines the formation of advocacy coalitions behind the creation and development of university programs in Systems Analysis, Informatics, and Computing (ASIC) between 1963 and 1986, as a sign of the discipline’s institutionalization. The period begins with the creation of the Scientific Computer program at the School of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (FCEyN-UBA) and concludes with the first cohort’s admission to the Latin American Higher School of Informatics (ESLAI). The study traces the evolution of these programs and the political-institutional processes that shaped them, drawing on qualitative methods, interviews, and documentary research. It shows that ASIC programs were not planned or coordinated with national science and technology policies, but emerged through heterogeneous dynamics involving diverse actors. The analysis highlights both the growing significance of ASIC programs in Argentina’s scientific- technological and productive structure and the importance of understanding how actors’ interests and ideas influenced these disciplines.

Author

• Camila Zeballos Lerte