Español Scientific and technological sovereignty in Argentina: Information, knowledge and policy in strategic territories
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25260/EA.26.36.2.0.2677Keywords:
geopolitics of knowledge, Argentine sea, Antarctica, semiarid regions, public science, scientific infrastructureAbstract
1. Scientific sovereignty gained prominence in semi-peripheral countries as a response to interdependent and unequal global scientific systems. However, it is often addressed in abstract or normative terms, overlooking its situated and multiscalar dimensions.
2. This article examines scientific and technological sovereignty through three Argentine initiatives. The National Observatory for Land Degradation and Desertification (ONDTyD); the Pampa Azul Initiative (a science policy aimed at advancing knowledge and strategic governance of the Argentine maritime space), and the protection of paleontological heritage in the Argentine Antarctic Sector. It proposes a three-tiered conceptual framework (informational, cognitive and systemic) to examine how national science policies articulate autonomy, cooperation, and territorial relevance.
3. Each case highlights a specific dimension of scientific and technological sovereignty. The ONDTyD emphasizes the generation and standardization of environmental data; Pampa Azul, the consolidation of scientific infrastructure and on interministerial, interinstitutional, and interjurisdictional coordination, and the protection of paleontological heritage in the Argentine Antarctic Sector, the production of knowledge with high symbolic and sovereign value.
4. Together, these initiatives contribute to strengthening national capacities to produce relevant and strategic knowledge. At the same time, structural tensions emerge.
5. These tensions occur between openness and control of information, between local relevance and global validation, and between institutional continuity and political fragility. These tensions illustrate the challenges of exercising autonomy within interdependent systems.
6. Implications. Scientific and technological sovereignty relies on the capacity to define the terms of cooperation and to orient knowledge production toward territorial priorities. The proposed conceptual framework organizes the analysis into informational, cognitive, and systemic dimensions, allowing an examination of how the dynamics of autonomy, cooperation, and relevance are configured in interdependent contexts. This approach is useful for evaluating science policies in other semi-peripheral contexts.
PH: Iniciativa Pampa Azul
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Copyright (c) 2026 Paula Rodríguez, Damián A. Fernández, Maria E. Raffi, Juan E. Sala, Silvina A. Romano
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