“There are not only peripheral scientific communities but also peripheral research objects”

Abstract

Pablo Kreimer, a renowned expert in Science and Technology Studies (STS), shares the concerns he had throughout his academic career regarding science and technology, including how both relate to the social environment (from the perspective of national science policies), the relationships between centers and peripheries, and the relationship between knowledge problems and social problems. To better understand how scientific fields emerge and develop in peripheral contexts and how they relate to the societies in which they are immersed, he suggests treating disciplines and their institutionalization as key objects of analysis to be observed in peripheral contexts, as he did with molecular biology in Argentina. From a historical, political, and epistemological perspective, Kreimer critically reflects on the development of the field of STS, with a special emphasis on Latin America. He also highlights its limitations and challenges (in his opinion) and analyzes the relationship between STS and public policies, social sciences, and the private sector. Additionally, he argues that research agendas should be updated—not as an interdisciplinary requirement, but rather as a way to address the circumstances of their time. According to Kreimer, whose perspective on the political sociology of science takes into account power relations and the relevance of different contexts, research objects and analytical approaches should warn about social problems and knowledge accumulation.