Mediator agents of knowledge in glo/cal networks. What role play the research groups of Los Andes University in Bogotá?

Mediator agents of knowledge in glo/cal networks. What role play the research groups of Los Andes University in Bogotá?

[SHS:SOCIO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Sociology

mediator agent

social network analysis (SNA)

glo-cal

knowledge

network

city

research laboratory

Purpose – Through the Mediator Agents of Knowledge (MAK) analytical lens, this paper shows the role played by some of the research groups of Los Andes University in the context of metropolitan area of Bogotá. The question is: which of these groups are, could be or could become MAK? Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the ISI-Thomson and SCOPUS citation index to classified and select Los Andes research groups more visible within international communities. Each one of the selected groups is studied and all of them are systematized in order to find regularities vis-à-vis MAK notion. Findings – One type of group acts in certain way as a mediator agent, because of the role they play, not only on the global scenario, but particularly because the role its director plays as inter-actor coordinator among institutions in Bogotá. This Glo/cal role could be partly explained by the characteristic sector where this kind of group develops its research activity: ‘mediate sector complexity' (Sorenson 2006). Practical implications – The traditional findings accepted from learning region and territorial innovation system approaches are in question on the recently knowledge economy conditions. The global scenario where the research groups develop their activity is signed recently by functionally links instead of geographical proximity. Those approaches could apply only in some kind of sectors, where nowadays, the agglomeration condition of a city and the interdisciplinary networks of knowledge still play a complementary interaction.

Herrera, Bernardo

Jaime, Astrid

Vinck, Dominique

.

53rd Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International

2006

ENG

conference proceeding

http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00261649

http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/26/16/49/PDF/Paper_HERRERA_JAIME_VINCK.pdf

Toronto

Canada