panoramic view to the evolution of three scientific communities in chilean academia 2012-2022

Abstract

The scientific community (or the academic profession) is one of the key players in the global and local dynamics of R&D and affects enormously the performance of contemporary societies. Nevertheless, historical, and institutional conditions strongly affect the magnitude and form of scientific and technological production in the various scientific communities around the globe. During the 20th century, the scientific community has been described as Merton's CUDO, followed by Kuhn's notion of paradigm, and finally in terms of post-normal science debates, mode two, and triple helix. This paper compares two measurements (survey-2012, and survey 2022), describing the evolution of a set of characteristics, especially incentives and values, ​​​​in three scientific communities (astronomers, sociologists, and molecular biologists) as representative of three epistemic practices: exact sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. After an introduction describing the context of knowledge production in Chile, the paper compares results from both surveys, trying to understand the differences and aspects in common in a transversal way through three dimensions. The results are the outcome of two online surveys applied to a statistically representative of the communities studied.