Da produção do conhecimento científico à transferência de informações: análise da circulação de saberes no âmbito de duas redes de pesquisa agropecuária

Abstract

The circulation of knowledge within two agricultural and livestock research networks (the Pecus network, coordinated by Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste, in Brazil, and the Animal Change network, coordinated by INRA, in France), from production of scientific knowledge to transfer of information, was analyzed. It was hypothesized that analysis on practices and aims within research networks during scientific knowledge production, and on the information dissemination process and results produced, would make it possible to describe how these enable circulation of knowledge. Seven specific objectives were attained, including analysis on the process of producing scientific-technical knowledge from the researcher’s perspective and identification of and analysis on the official results forwarded via the research networks to the coordinating institutions, with mapping of the network websites to view the results that are made public through the internet. For this, three methodological procedures were used: semi-structured interviews, quantitative analysis on the official results in the research networks and mapping of the websites of the two networks. Seven key researchers in these state networks in Brazil and France were interviewed with the aim of obtaining data for analysis on three aspects: scientific practice, circulation of knowledge within the research networks and circulation of knowledge from these networks to other environments. To attain greater depth of analysis in interpreting the data, Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts within this field and his scientific capital, Yves Jeanneret’s concept of triviality and theories on social networks were used. The results achieved showed that although discourse took place within its linguistic dimension, the practices and aims analyzed often revealed obstacles to the process of producing and disseminating technical and scientific knowledge, such as: i) overload caused by institutional bureaucracy, with dissatisfaction expressed by researchers regarding the need to perform administrative and managerial functions, which diminished the time available for research; ii) conflicts inherent to the field of science, such as competition between peers; and iii) the contradiction between the availability and real use of TICs in communications between peers. Furthermore, characteristics inherent to analysis on social networks were identified, such as relationships of empathy and trust for natural formation of research networks and the placed on personal contact within scientific collaboration. The quantitative results from the networks demonstrated that the Pecus network produced more scientific articles and internal training, followed results relating to corporate image and training of multipliers, while Animal Change was ahead in its results relating to dissemination activities, followed by scientific articles. Mapping of the network websites showed that, in the case of Animal Change, the information architecture did not facilitate information retrieval, although most of the results declared by the network in the final report were available on the internet. In the case of the Pecus network, it was seen that the website was little used. Lastly, the analysis performed showed that the hypothesis that had been put forward described the limits and difficulties encountered in conducting research and raised topics for future studies.