The process of university research as interpreted from the sociology of knowledge
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The article presents a case study of a research conducted by a professor at an Instituto Universitario in Caracas during 2006-2007. The paper presents an interpretation of the research process, emphasizing the role of the scientific community, and analyzing individual and collective actions, considering the way they influence the development of the investigation. The study covers the period betwwen the moment the investigator selects the topic of research to the moment the local scientific community makes use of knowledge gained through research.
The study uses an ethnomethodologicalapproach (Coulon, 2005) used to learn, from the perspective of the investigator, about the practices, decisions and interactions occurred during the process. The technique for collecting information was the interview (open and semi- structured). The theoretical framework used for the analysis derived from the work of the sociologists of knowledge of the Edinburgh School (Bloor, 1991, Barnes, Bloor and Henry, 1996).
Preliminary findings speak of the role of interests, goals, beliefs and theories of the scientific community in the creation, validation and diffusion of knowledge. From there some reflections are made about how the decisions and actions of the investigator could influence the processes of local knowledge creation.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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