The Latin American Science, Technology and Society Field: Between Mainstreaming and Situated Repositioning

Policies for evaluating scientific knowledge and promoting internationalization have reshaped practices across all scientific fields, leading to new forms of knowledge production and communication. By prioritizing high-impact publications and English-language communication these policies have made research agendas more global, often aligning with the research interests of established scientific centers in industrialized countries. Researchers are pressured to conform to dominant theoretical frameworks, which may not adequately address local issues, particularly in non-central countries. This communication explores how these trends are impacting the field of Social Studies of Science and Technology (SSST) in Latin America over the last decade, examining: a) the combination of global and problems addressed (research agenda) and b) the adoption and recontextualization of mainstream theoretical frameworks and the production of local conceptual approaches. Methodologically, the study is based on a quantitative and qualitative examination of publications by Latin American scholars in local and mainstream journals during the period 2010-2023. Main findings indicate that the Latin American STS field is undergoing a process of contradictory reconfiguration between a strong adoption of mainstream theoretical references and a political repositioning -which revisits its own origins- that leads it to prioritize in their research agenda themes of local relevance. In this contradictory space, conceptual innovations timidly emerge that adapt and hybridize those references and create new ones.