About the origins of the Argentine scientific policy. Keys to an interpretation "from within"

Abstract

This paper approaches the process of institutionalization of scientific and technological activities in the province of Mendoza towards the middle of the 20th century. To do so, it analyzes the trajectory of two provincial agencies: the Technical Institute of Research and Economic Orientation of Production (1938-1945) and the Institute of Economic and Technological Research (from 1945). The main findings of this investigation are condensed into two aspects.  The first one refers to the production of evidence on the creation of local knowledge oriented to solve the specific requirements of the industrialization process. The second one identifies a threshold in the construction of technical capabilities of the provincial government in the analyzed period (1938-1955). On such a basis, this article opens up the debate on the role that the provinces assumed in the dynamics that configured the Argentine scientific policy in its germinal stage.