Centers and Peripheries in Knowledge Production [Hardcover]

This book examines the circulation of knowledge within globalization, focusing on the differences between centers and peripheries of knowledge production in the social sciences. It explores not only how knowledge is appropriated in peripheral fields but also how foreign ideas shape those fields and the trajectories of scholars, and uses actor-network theory to explain circulation of knowledge as an extension of socio-technical networks that transcend borders.

Introduction  1. Understanding the Circulation of Knowledge  2. A Qualitative Approach to Scientific Fields in the Social Sciences  3. Training Scientists in Networked Scientific Fields: Argentine Political Scientists in the Making  4. Getting Started: The Beginning of Academic Careers in Argentine Political Science and Their Relationship with Foreign Fields  5. Towards a Plurality of Translations: Consolidation and Success in an Academic Career in Argentine Political Science and Relationships with Metropolitan Foreign Fields.  Conclusions.

This is a truly interesting and worthwhile case study, introducing a number of new interpretive ideas as well as data of broader relevance. It shows that the relation between the centre and the periphery is not one simply of one-way domination, but that characteristics of the periphery also contribute to its continuing status, though social-science graduates from the periphery can sometimes use foreign relations to structure their own careers.

- Jennifer Platt, University of Sussex, International Sociology