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oriented to applications and frontier technology throughout the globe, which really are more
results in economic benefits in the mid- and socially accountable than existing models.
long-term, and at times in a reasonably These new alternative forms respond to the
short-term. need to make scientific research more partic-
ipative, including social sectors that have a
Vertiginous technological development: The stake in the application of scientific findings.
scientific and technological research that In the following, two alternative forms of
took place during World War II was the basis doing research in Latin America are
for the impressive technological advance reviewed, and a comparison is made with the
observed in the second half of the twentieth main features of the model (‘Mode 2’)
century. Developments in micro- and nano- defined by Gibbons et al. (1994) and
technology, bio-medicine, genetics, and Nowotny et al. (2001, 2003, 2005), which to
other disciplines and trans-disciplines have our mind is mostly limited to research related
set the pace for the constitution of a society to the satisfaction of the global economic
that cannot be understood without examining market needs and therefore does not go far
contributions of the scientific and technolog- enough in terms of change. The conclusion is
ical knowledge attained in recent decades. that some segments of society are concerned
with the consequences of scientific research
Advancement in communications: The speed and are putting in practice new decision-
at which any type of information is dissemi- making models that confront current trends.
nated today surpasses the most fertile imagi- These new forms of doing research are two
nation of the past. The new information and samples of cooperation among segments of
communication technologies (ICT) allow society in search of innovative ways to
both the information related to current approach regional development to improve
research, and that related to international the quality of collective life.
trade, markets, and the state of global finances,
to be disseminated almost in real time.

‘Reification’of science and technology: The A NEW PARADIGM PROPOSED FOR
fact is that science and technology are SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
increasingly treated as a commodity, thought
of in terms of markets, competitiveness, At the end of the twentieth century, some
and commercial product development authors observed that in previous years, the
(Elzinga, 2004). way of ‘producing knowledge’ had changed,
and proposed a new model (Gibbons et al.,
The common belief that ‘knowledge is power’: 1994). Concurrently, other authors observed
This assertion assigns to scientific knowl- that research in universities was undergoing
edge the capacity to dominate the economic, some significant changes in the forms of
political, and social spheres, as knowledge knowledge it produces (Fuller, 2000, 2003).
itself is held to be the most important factor The importance of the work of Gibbons and
of production. his associates resides in the fact that they
The world’s arrival in the era of knowl- have continued research on this topic
edge (Albrow and King, 1990; Crook et al., (Nowotny et al., 2001, 2003, 2005), attempt-
1992; David, 1992) is changing the percep- ing to reply, not always successfully, to the
tion of the role of science and technology in observations of their critics. According to
society. In part, scientific production appears Gibbons and his associates, this new way
to be linked to the needs of the global market. co-exists with the traditional form, and it
However, in the past several years, alterna- includes not only science and technology but
tive forms of ‘doing science’ have emerged also the social sciences and the humanities,