Nanotechnology policy and category transplantation: a case study in a semiperipheral context

Abstract

Argentina intends to concentrate an important part of its public financing and management resources in the development of capacities so that a general purpose technology (TPG), which is in the irruption stage, aims to improve the competitiveness of its economy and, as a result, it structures its promotion policies of nanotechnology based on the TPG approach, a notion applicable in the context of central economies and which, in the Argentine case, can help explain the poor promotion results in this area. This article focuses on a specific policy instrument oriented to the promotion and development of nanotechnology in Argentina, the Sectoral Nanotechnology Fund within the framework of the Sectorial Argentine Funds program (FONARSEC) promoted by ANPCyT. Within this fund, was selected a specific case seeking to make visible the organizational and institutional limitations and restrictions, which were not considered in the design of the policies or in their subsequent execution and which faces a semiperipheral economy in its struggle to participate in a new cycle of technological change.