Historical Dimension of Free Knowledge in South America: Changing Tradition

Abstract

Given the regional social studies of science and critical studies of regional development, we wonder what chance we have had as individuals and institutions to generate knowledge and learning oriented towards multicultural, human and sustainable needs? More specifically, free knowledge of ICTS contributed to these possibilities? The social perspective from which to approach the "Impact of Open Access in Higher Education in Latin America" has been the meeting of two theoretical-methodological agendas: the one from the social studies of science and that of the critical studies on the development, focused on South America, Central America and the Caribbean. To answer these questions, we address the historical dimension of social practices and academic-infoculture-generation and dissemination of knowledge from Europe to Latin America. This approach will help identify how traditions were consolidated and the privatization processes of knowledge generation and learning in academic institutions in the region since the sixteenth century. The newly diagnosed infostructure, regional and international, indicates that the impact of ICTS in the academy is a social process that is just beginning. However, in less than a decade social practices-free alternatives to the traditional ones - have been promoted that could contribute to the transformation of norms, values and processes.