Doing science and technology in Peru
José Ignacio López Soria
Benjamín Marticorena Castillo
science and technology in the modern project
Science and technology are incorporated into society as essential to the modern project. This does not mean that before modernity, ie that form of social organization begins developing in the eighteenth century, there were no technical knowledge. He just wants to say, not little, is that modern society of science and technology are as important as representative democracy, the city, school, business, the standing army, the market, civil organizations and the mass media and transportation. How
houses the science and technology in the modern project? Modernity is thought as a project that develops gradually in the world of culture and society level and involves profound changes in beliefs, expectations, habits, customs and lifestyles of people.
In culture, the project of modernity calls for the release of conceptions and cultural practices of the supervision before they have had on the religious and metaphysical ideas. This phenomenon is called secularization or sacralization of culture. Philosophy, science, law, ethics, politics, art and symbolic systems are thus free to develop. Each of these areas of culture constitutes an autonomous sphere that gives itself its own rules, obeying no more mandate than its own logic. The reason is acting as the supreme court can set the criteria of truth, righteousness and justice.
In the realm of society, the modern project organizes social life supposedly rational subsystems, of which the most important are: representative democracy macro management, the industrialization of production and reproduction of goods and services; exchange market, the standing army and police for defense, security and social control for the production school and dissemination of knowledge and civic and professional training of citizens, the judicial system for the conservation of living standards and legal use of violence, the city as a privileged form of human occupation of territory, the written and spoken press as an instrument of communication and expression and formation of public opinion, the mass transport for the movement of people and goods and the organization of the territory.
All this is done and is based on nation-states, a form of social organization that the modern project considered ideal.
The introduction and development of the project of modernity in a given society bring profound consequences for the individual and social life: change habits, customs and beliefs, the traditions lose their original character and policy, individuals have to assume as citizens and develop skills to interact freely with others through contracts and negotiated agreements and to rationally defend their own life choices, and so on.
As in other countries, the project of modernity in Peru was introduced gradually and in line with national and international processes. Occurred, first, its enunciation by the work of the Enlightenment in the second half of the eighteenth century, some of which became precursors the emancipation of Peru. Then came the attempts for autonomy, separatist wars, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the state random nationwide. Preferably employed in these processes, the first generation of republican Peru neglected the other aspects of modern project. Thus, the secularization of culture and values \u200b\u200band the enthronement of modern rationality in the social subsystems and in everyday life were neglected for several decades.
In the nineteenth century, Peru has witnessed a continuous struggle for the secularization of culture, which is manifested not only in attempts to separate church and state, trying to make the first left relegated to the private sphere and excluded from the public sphere, but efforts to introduce rational criteria in the world of ethics, law and policy and acclimatize in Peru scientific knowledge and its technological applications.
latter task, the introduction and development of scientific and technical knowledge, it was not easy. The colonial heritage helped little to it. Science in colonial times had been present in the universities to supplement training for lawyers, jurists, doctors and theologians, but subject, as in the Western Middle Ages, religious beliefs and, therefore, in a climate not conducive to their development . Technical procedures, moreover, failed to enter either massively, although some efforts are noticed mainly about navigation, fortifications, climate measures, construction and mining. None of this, however, was a sufficient experience to develop the project of modernity in matters relating to the change of the material conditions of social existence: the production of goods, services modernization, rational land occupation , market development, urbanization, and so on.
The Republican Peru is therefore weak in the early decades equipped to face the challenges of modernization. The awareness of these shortcomings begins, however, soon developed. San Martín and proposes the creation of technical schools and the wise Ustáriz Mariano de Rivero and try to make improvements in mining. But these initial objectives can not be developed by political instability, legal insecurity, institutional weakness and lack of economic resources of the early Republicans.
mid nineteenth century, however, things begin to change in Peru as a result mainly of the negotiation of guano and some institutional. It was then necessary to use scientific knowledge and techniques to make their applications efficiently exploit the mineral wealth to expand and modernize agriculture, to improve the buildings and organizing the urban space, to build the railway, linking the land and rationally organizing, connecting productive areas with population centers and ports, uniform measurement systems, recording the geographic and climatic variations, exploring energy sources, strengthen the defense capabilities and, in general, lay the foundation for industrial development.
charge of this task is, first, engineers and foreign scientists hired specifically by governments, and some Peruvians who had trained abroad. But it was soon realized that this was not enough and began to think about the urgent need to train in Peru, scientists, engineers and technicians that the country needed for its development. Well arise in the second half of the nineteenth century, in a process of progress and stagnation, the Faculty of Sciences of the University of San Marcos, School of Engineering, now National University of Engineering, schools of arts and crafts the mine foremen schools, centers for the training of experts in navigation and military art, and the first steps to create what later became the College of Agriculture, today Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina.
As they came to constitute the scientific and technical body able to design and manage the development process, institutions were created that grouped these professionals, facilitated the exchange between them and directed their work to serve the country. The most important of these was the Corps of Engineers and Architects of the State, initially established in 1852 and reconstituted in 1872. The trend toward the institutionalization of professional practice and the rational organization of technical work in 1896 leads to the creation of the Ministry of Works, which will design and conduct public works. At the end of the nineteenth century, in 1898, was founded the Society of Engineers of Peru, which includes engineers, architects and entrepreneurs and will be the subsequent history of business and professional associations and academies of science, engineering and architecture.
Within this institutional network, consisting of scientific training schools and technical and professional corporations, it was developing a new way of thinking that put Peru in the material development, rationally designed and executed, the source of dynamism social and human progress. This thought was taking shape in the "discourse of welfare" which was published in the journal Proceedings of the time as the Building and Mines of Peru, Bulletin of Mines, Industries and Construction, both of the School of Engineering, "Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Lima, Information and Memoirs of the Society of Engineers of Peru," Annals of the Technical and Industrial Peru, Annals, newsletters, reports and proceedings of scientific societies, professional and business, then the journal Science, Faculty of Sciences of San Marcos.
With this background and despite the interruption of this process due to the war with Chile, Peru reaches the twentieth century with some experience in scientific and technical development and advanced steps in the process of introducing the project of modernity. Based on these advances will start the development of industrialization who tries to bring rationality to the subsystem modern production of capital goods and consumer and industrial and municipal services. In addition to the textile, mining, agriculture and construction, begin to develop urban and industrial applications of mechanics, electricity and telecommunications. It appears the car and with it began the construction of the road network. However, the preferred orientation of development towards primary exports shrank him incentives to industrial progress well into the twentieth century. This made the scientific and technological development left behind and that, therefore, the project of modernity saw more as the institutionalization of the logic of democracy and extension of civil rights and democratization of power, "the foreign market, incorporating our primary production to the international circuit of product-and safety-professionalization of the armed forces and police, which as an expansion of industrialization.
Since the mid-twentieth century until the end of the decade of 1980, Peru, by conditions external and internal, goes through an accelerated process of industrialization import substitution and development that encourages and facilitates the development of science and technology and greatly expands the education of the process of training for citizenship and ownership of skills for work in modern environments. But by then, the project of modernity has blown away from their cultural roots and has focused its sights on the modernization of social subsystems, especially of governance, production of goods and services, urban occupation of the territory, and production and dissemination of scientific and technological knowledge and work skills. This explains why attempts modernizers usually geared to the rationalization of the state and public services, industrial production of consumer goods, urban and regional planning, construction and urban buildings, the extension of telecommunications, expansion and modernization of road infrastructure, creating a network of research and development institutions (CONCYTEC, IPEN, IMARPE, PGI, INICTEL, INIA, INGEMMET, INS, INRENA, etc.), the expansion of the training of basic and expansion and diversification of the occupational level and professional. In this environment, science and technology have a significantly larger presence than it had in the past. The whole social life is technifying and therefore, access to scientific and technological culture becomes a necessity for all.
In the last decade of the twentieth century is accelerating the process of modernization, with a remarkable development of telecommunications, electronic processing means of information and biotechnologies. This, together with the processes of globalization presents new scientific and technological challenges and demands high standards of competence and quality to participate in world trade and domestic needs.
Challenges and perspectives of today
For a decade, global society is being challenged by the phenomenon of the global economy in which the main tradable good is the information that each company produces what is required to live by exchanging goods and services with others in the commercial and cultural relations. The information is generated mainly by people and institutions of science and technology. Hence, the global society is, alternative and rightly identified as the Information Society and Knowledge. Incitement to access it has filed with the nations of the world, having found in their different circumstances. Some countries are making great progress under the new order while others are putting more dangerously major policy decision, which is given in the fields of scientific research and education.
Given the large global competition for limited markets, supply of goods and services, countries with more enlightened governments are strengthening their science and technology in order to fill spaces that have managed to accumulate benefits of quality and costs of certain products compared with others. In any emerging country to which we look, we find systems of science and technology directors strongly supported organizations that promote programs that meet science and production, becoming true promoters of material development based on knowledge and scientific research as a major strategic variable. Peru is striving to participate in this global trend that extends the capability of linking scientific research to the economy. In September 2003, meeting in Madrid, ministers and authorities in science and technology of the countries of Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula agreed to recommend to their governments "Set as essential goal in the shortest time possible, investment in Science, Technology and Innovation, on the order of 1% the national GDP of each country ", adding an urgent call of" Bringing Science, Technology and Innovation in policies, plans and strategies, allocating human resources, financial and infrastructure required. "
Peru's efforts should focus on human capacity building globally competitive level in priority areas because of its relationship with the economy, to fund scientific research programs and technological innovation to make our products competitive in domestic markets and external and properly equipped laboratories and workshops in which these works take place. Should be attention to the quality of education professionals and researchers, and promoting their participation in national, regional and global research and information, as an expression of willingness to interact with other countries as equal partners, with momentum intellectual ingenuity and culture.
What are the fields of research over Peru agree to these days? Although this is an issue that may have different answers depending on the social and philosophical view of everyone, there is broad national consensus about what these priority areas. One is that of biology in its broadest sense wide, to give economic value to the wide biodiversity of our territory. A second field is the science of materials, which should enable a better quality of life and higher profitability on the basis of a productive field for a long is the foundation of our economy and will continue for much longer: the metal mining and non-metal and metal processing. A third priority area is the research and promotion of information and communication technologies, ICT calls, such as vehicle and content of information and knowledge. A fourth field is the so-called clean technologies, for industrial development and basic services in areas most affected by poverty in Peru. A fifth field as important as the previous ones, is the basic science that should permeate the entire society and professionals to increase the universe of concepts, procedures and codes which settles all the activity of scientific and technological production .
A final reflection is essential. When we see that cultural sensitivity distance of technological development leading to disputes and conflicts among social groups of individuals with their social environment, or when we witness the confrontation of peoples to destroy each other in civil wars or international covered in their histories, habits, physical traits and faiths, and economic interests, we find that compared to global technology development and its parent science, the sense of security, sense of belonging and, ultimately, common sense human communities have a proper time of maturation and adaptation to rapid changes in technology and dramatic findings of science. This situation will grow as the century progresses. It is likely that discoveries in nature are so extraordinary that it costs us join our common sense, used to evolve in less heady times. Thence that as important as creating the conditions for the further development of science and technology to improve the material conditions of life of people, are the policies and actions to release their creative talents in art and the vast world of symbolic.
Presentation of the XII
Unlike other volumes in this same encyclopedia, the volume on science and technology is the result of a collective work which has involved scientists and engineers, all experts in the subject they had to develop. The coordination work has consisted primarily of identifying the issues and experts to develop, distribute tasks, propose guidelines for preparing the presentations, have they meet predetermined quantities and deadlines that we had set. It was necessary to limit ourselves to outline the substance of the mandated subjects, also favoring the development of science and modern technology and, therefore, referring mainly to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of our history. In some chapters, however, includes some information from earlier times.
The sequence of chapters reflects a logical order. After this introduction, seeks to set the scientific and technical in republican history and identify challenges Currently, the following chapters, from 2 nd to 7 th, present the scientific work in our country, always in connection with the development of science in the world. Chapter 8 º realize fundamental typical engineering history in Peru. Next follow three chapters, 9 º, 10 º and 11 º, which show the development of engineering in three key areas for national development: mining, agriculture and fishery. The next three chapters, 12 º, 13 º and 14 º, consider the problem of land transport, river, sea and air. Chapter 15 º presents the development of construction and urbanism. Chapter 16 º realizes the introduction and spread of modern information technologies and communications. And finally, the last chapter presents, in summary, the process of implementation and development of scientific and technical training in Peru.
images illustrate different themes and graphics to facilitate understanding. The illustrations were either incorporated in the narrative or suggested by the authors of the chapters or introduced by the editors of El Comercio.
The volume is enriched with short news on engineering and inventions Peruvian and also with short biographies of people who have contributed significantly to the development of science and technology in Peru. For the preparation of this information, especially biographies, we have had the valuable collaboration of Martin and Leticia Quiñones Ueda Tinoco Tsuboyama.
Our thanks go, first, the collaborators of the volume of work in which they had deep knowledge of the subject fellowship and simplicity in the exposition, and also the editors of El Comercio, and have reviewed texts, illustrated chapters, organized around the material to give the final shape.
Notes (1) Posted in: López Soria, José Ignacio (coord..) Thematic Encyclopedia of Peru. T. XI: Science and technology. Lima, Orbis Ventures SAC (El Comercio), 2004, p. 9-14.
0 comments:
Post a Comment