STS research stimulates – or should stimulate – public involvement in decision-making and contributes – or should contribute – to constructing scenarios for alternative futures under incomplete information conditions, to improving our understanding of the social impacts of the exploitation of natural resources and of knowledge in general, to evaluating the effectiveness of cooperation among different interest groups, and to generating and applying various types of knowledge for the benefit of its societies. In this way, researchers in the STS field are in a good position to assist decision-makers and help the public understand the implications of present-day technoscientific change, and to support the development of fairer, more equitable solutions to combat the challenges of today’s changing world. It goes without saying that, far from having reached maturity, this is a space in a permanent state of construction. (33)
In Latin America, interest is centered on the problems of science and social inclusion, knowledge production and use, center-periphery relations, science, technology, and governance policies, and gender. (31)
One of the distinguishing features of Latin American STS studies was the desire to transcend disciplinary boundaries. However, unlike the European or US contexts, where the field advanced primarily in the direction of sensitization to other fields of knowledge and a variety of social actors, interaction with these other spaces in our own region is more intermittent. Three lines of work, nevertheless, stand out, which, even in their early stages, tried to mobilize other actors. (32)