Thursday 18th January 2018, 2pm - 3.30pm
Seminar Room 1.06, Old Surgeons' Hall
Rodrigo Liscovsky (PhD Candidate, University of Edinburgh STIS); Collaborate or Perish: A Multi-Level Social Network Analysis of Scientific Internationalisation in Latin America Using a Combination of Methods in STS;
Sophie Stone (PhD Candidate, University of Edinburgh STIS): Towards an empirical account of the relationship between synthetic biology entities and concepts of the human
[Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation PG Student Seminar Series]
Internationalisation has become increasingly important in both research and policy practices. International collaboration, a major component of internationalisation strategies, can take place at different levels and in a variety of forms. It can involve individual scientists, research institutions and even countries who come together to co-author a scientific paper, work in a joint international R&D research project or simply interact in digital platforms.
In recent decades, internationalisation has also occupied a central place in the policy agenda as countries started perceiving science and technology as a commodity and a key asset to compete internationally in the knowledge-based economy. In light of this, policy actors have become more concerned with producing quantitative information and developing scientometric indicators for monitoring the efforts to internationalise research systems.
In Latin America, the dynamics of scientific internationalisation are complex and diverse. Latin American scientists and research institutions collaborate internationally to enhance their scientific and technical capital but the forms, intensity and orientation of collaboration differ greatly and there is no agreement on the factors that boost scientific internationalisation. In the policy sphere, despite recent efforts to produce regional indicators and measurement standards of scientific internationalisation, Latin American countries differ greatly in their capabilities to produce scientometric indicators and there are no clear common patterns of measurement in the region.
The main aim of my PhD research project is to understand the contemporary dynamics of scientific internationalisation in this particular region of the world. I view scientific internationalisation as a relational multi-level phenomenon linking scientists, research institutions and policy actors together. From a methodological point of view, the study of scientific internationalisation, I argue, requires insights from both quantitative and qualitative methods and the reconciliation of both epistemologies in STS. I look forward to feedback before my upcoming Exam Board.