Social utility of scientific knowledge, academic research groups and social problems

Abstract

This paper analyzes, from the perspective of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, the construction of utility meaning of scientific knowledge in the context of interactions between heterogeneous actors. That process is analyzed in the case of three academic research groups that direct part of their work toward solving social problems. As a result, different forms of linkage between producers and users of knowledge, the process of demand definition and the way that alternative scientific uses are negotiated in interactive network are analyzed. The paper also shows that, once the researchers are involved in other social networks, their groups suffer modifications in the processes of knowledge production and in the organization of their academic work