A influência das agendas governamentais na produção multidisciplinar de conhecimento

Abstract

Recent scientific and technological policies indicate a tendency to incorporate a mixed model of science production. In this model, traditional academic, political and institutional practices appear to blend with new ones. In such mixed model spontaneous and induced
demands for research are closely related. Moreover, various social spheres are integrated with the scientific community, such as the government agencies, the business sector and other areas engaged in the development of science and technology. This model associates different logics and goals by mixing social, economic and scientific demands. Fluidity among frontiers is obvious as they maintain, simultaneously, their differences. The main goal of this article is to reflect upon the recent scientific and technological policies mentioned above, focusing more specifically on the role of government agendas in stimulating the development of multidisciplinary knowledge production in Brazil. The analysis of the Pluriannual Plan of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Brazil (PPA-MCT) and of the guidelines and strategies adopted by some of the government development agencies such as Capes and CNPq has revealed that those programs provide significant stimulus to the expansion and consolidation of multidisciplinarity. This observation leads to the conclusion that there are some institutional mechanisms that encourage - intentionally or not - multidisciplinarity in the science and technology knowledge production process.