Abstract

CORDOBA, Diana. Politización, participación e innovación: socializando la investigación agrícola en BoliviaPolitization, participation, and innovation: Socializing agricultural research in Bolivia. Apuntes [online]. 2017, vol.44, n.81, pp.131-160. ISSN 0252-1865.  http://dx.doi.org/10.21678/apuntes.81.808.

Using the case of agricultural research in Bolivia during the neoliberal period, this paper argues that there is a need to bring politics into science, but differentiates between two levels: politics as a mode of governance or a political project that shapes the scientific process (macro-politics), and politics as an eternal process of contestation in society (micro-politics). To support this argument, we focus on the Foundation for the Promotion and Research of Andean Products (Proinpa) to demonstrate how the «macro-political» project of neoliberalism decentralized and privatized agricultural research services, redefining research agendas and the relationship between researchers and end-users of technology; and, in turn, how researchers responded to this project, adapting and contesting neoliberalism in their everyday activities (micro-politics).

Keywords : Agricultural research; participation; innovation; politization; politics; Bolivia.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · English ( pdf ) | Spanish ( pdf )