The 90’s argentine railway system from a social-technical view:

privatizations and technological lag

Abstract

The aim of this work is to explore and discuss the political decisions made on the privatization of Argentina’s railway system in the 90s from a scientific and technological point of view. The railway has had in Argentina an essential role in the industrial development. It is considered to be a structuring element of the national territory because of its ability to facilitate the integration and interconnection of the territory and also because it has been a major source of employment in vast sectors of the country. In the first place, there will be, on the basis of the SCOT’s constructivism model, an introduction and a discussion of the relevant groups who took participation in shaping the railway´s definition, taking into account the existing reciprocity between politics and technology. Secondly, considering some limitations of the SCOT’s model, some politics that tend to make think of the railway as an authoritarian and exclusion technology will be contemplated. Afterwards from this point of view it will be shown that the lag and stagnation of the railway system occurred, on the one hand, due to the lack of scientific and technological decisions and on the other hand, because of the economic and social structure of the country. Finally, the role of the State in building a scientific and technological system will be analyzed in the context of the need for a project for the nation and of the link with other relevant components such as the scientifictechnological infrastructure and the productive sector