A theoretical discussion on the biotechnological scientific culture: academic relations with industrial science and the government

Abstract

This essay, by considering that contemporaneous reason is an action in the world, articulates a discussion about the reality of scientific studies based on the concepts of "circulating references and transferoperations", from the analyticalschemes of different circuits, to reconstruct the circulation network of scientific facts according to Latour (2001). Considered also is the concept of "scientific practice" accordingto Rabinow (1999) and description of the triad - technique, concept and experimental system - that is implicated in scientific discoveries. Based upon these concepts and schemes, biotechnological scientific culture is described, highlighting interaction of the three main participants in the system of innovation - university, government and industry - in the formation of the biotechnological milieu. It was concluded that a fundamental step for the comprehension of the biotechnological scientific culture would be the ethnographicinsertion in "scientific places"that would make possible research of how these new forms/events catalyze actors, things, temporalities/spatiality for a new assemblage, producing new skills. Also emphasized are the implications of this discussion for the area of Administration of Science, Technology and Innovation.