Page 127 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-07 1/10/09 8:43 AM Page 98

98 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

emphasizing trans-disciplinary work, new project that is pertinent and will lead to a solution.
evaluation criteria involving peers and non-peers, The researchers assert that:
and a research orientation developed according
to specific needs; The rise of these systems is based on advances in
● the emergence of an innovative concept of cognitive sciences, which demonstrate that learn-
research on public policies; ing is accomplished – especially when referring to
higher abilities and levels of cognitive performance
● the possibility of new forms of work based on – when the emphasis is changed from teaching to
alliances with other organizations, public or pri- learning, based on personal and group study
vate, in the network modality, assuming new carried out by the students (CIDE, 2003: 1. Free
values associated with cooperative work; translation by the author, italics added).
● the beginning of a new institutionality, including
some official regulations for more adequate poli- These systems consider the heterogeneity of
cies in this area; the students’ conditions, academic and other-
● the opening of new dialogue spaces related to wise, and this makes it necessary for the pro-
the subject of research, making reference to grams to be non-uniform. They are adapted
problems of social concern, allowing the inclu- to the circumstances of each student, thus
sion of new sectors, actors, and agents; and liberating the education process from the
● the enhancement of financial support from both dogmas of traditional pedagogy. Orienting
the private sector and some international agen-
cies (Ávalos, 2006). and carrying out their own learning process,
the students reach intellectual independence
This way of working suggests the emergence through the permanent exercise of critical
of a new way of doing research directly and judgment.
unquestionably linked to societal needs, in The idea of regional scientific communities
line with the ‘Spirit of Budapest,’ baptized in began to crystallize when the ‘La Laguna’ 3
this text as ‘Mode 3.’ College of Veterinarians brought this up as a
demand to a group of scientists. The veteri-
narians were looking for a way to satisfy the
Regional scientific communities in needs of local professionals in the agriculture
and livestock sciences, and to continue their
Mexico
academic training without having to abandon
In Mexico, a group of established researchers their daily work activities. In light of this sce-
in the fields of the life sciences, working nario, the academics’concept of teaching and
mostly in public institutions, aware of the research is developed as an answer to a het-
need to break with traditional models of erogeneous set of individuals with different
higher and graduate education and to create social, professional, and economic back-
new regional research centers that truly grounds. The innovative conceptualization of
respond to regional needs, have taken it upon teaching and research was formalized many
themselves to innovate in these areas of years after the start of activities, through the
human livelihood (CIDE, 2003). creation, in 1999, of an umbrella establish-
The idea was born of the recognition that ment named the Center for Innovation and
the demand for higher education and scien- Educational Development (CIDE), for ‘La
tific research for the first 20 years of the Laguna’ and its surrounding area (CIDE,
twenty-first century will not be satisfied via 2003: 1).
the traditional educational systems. The CIDE recognizes that Mexican society
researchers have taken advantage of this real- needs scientists, and that the independent
ity to initiate innovative education systems development of societies in the world cannot
based on learning and on the identification come about without the formation of a criti-
and solution of problems. Concretely this cal mass, capable of approaching scientific
means that once a problem is identified, the and technical problems that will allow them
student searches and finds the knowledge to grow, based on the acknowledgement and