Although entanglements between the nation-state and the social sciences are often emphasized, little is hitherto known about how the state’s demands on the social sciences have evolved over time. Through a detailed analysis of Chilean presidential addresses from 1900 to 2021, this study examines the types of scientific knowledge that mattered to the nation-state and explores how and why this knowledge made a difference for leading representatives of the Chilean state. We identify three periods. In roughly the first half of the 20th century, the rational and scientific analysis of the state ( state-istics ) was privileged as a means to master the population and its needs. In the second half of the century, the legitimacy of political decisions became increasingly framed in economic terms. In recent decades, a symbiotic relationship between the “applied” social sciences and the goals of the nation-state persists, but recent presidential addresses reveal a more ambivalent stance toward the social sciences and a growing reliance on the input of boundary institutions, such as think tanks and policy-oriented research centers. Although this study focuses on the Chilean case, it also considers the influence of global contexts in shaping this nation-building project. In this sense, the analysis situates the evolving relationship between the social sciences and the state of the “Chilean experiment” within a broader global framework, offering insights that may contribute to understanding similar dynamics in other parts of the world.
Although experimental science is renowned for its discoveries, conducting research often involves dealing with problems and setbacks in the research process. Such research endeavors are often marked as failures, even though they have produced new knowledge. This paper explores researchers' perspectives on these issues, shedding light on how they navigate setbacks in the research process. By conducting participant observation and qualitative interviews within two research groups, one in biochemistry and one in optical physics, our study reveals that experimental scientists tend to reject the notion of failed research when faced with unexpected results or unanticipated challenges. Instead, they recognize these instances as learning opportunities rather than failure as an inevitable outcome. However, the concept of failure is applied selectively, particularly when recognition for scientific efforts is lacking. Using Bourdieu's framework, we illustrate the nuanced categories and classifications that experimental researchers use to understand and articulate their experiences of failure in science. Bien que la science exp & eacute;rimentale soit r & eacute;put & eacute;e pour ses d & eacute;couvertes, la conduite de recherches implique souvent de faire face & agrave; des probl & egrave;mes et & agrave; des revers au cours du processus de recherche. Ces efforts de recherche sont souvent qualifi & eacute;s d'& eacute;checs, m & ecirc;me s'ils ont g & eacute;n & eacute;r & eacute; de nouvelles connaissances. Cet article explore le point de vue des chercheurs sur ces questions, mettant en lumi & egrave;re la mani & egrave;re dont ils g & egrave;rent les revers rencontr & eacute;s au cours du processus de recherche. Gr & acirc;ce & agrave; une observation participante et & agrave; des entretiens qualitatifs men & eacute;s au sein de deux groupes de recherche, l'un en biochimie et l'autre en physique optique, notre & eacute;tude r & eacute;v & egrave;le que les scientifiques exp & eacute;rimentaux ont tendance & agrave; rejeter la notion de recherche rat & eacute;e lorsqu'ils sont confront & eacute;s & agrave; des r & eacute;sultats inattendus ou & agrave; des d & eacute;fis impr & eacute;vus. Au contraire, ils consid & egrave;rent ces situations comme des occasions d'apprendre plut & ocirc;t que comme un & eacute;chec in & eacute;vitable. Cependant, le concept d'& eacute;chec est appliqu & eacute; de mani & egrave;re s & eacute;lective, en particulier lorsque la reconnaissance des efforts scientifiques fait d & eacute;faut. En nous appuyant sur le cadre th & eacute;orique de Bourdieu, nous illustrons les cat & eacute;gories et classifications nuanc & eacute;es que les chercheurs exp & eacute;rimentaux utilisent pour comprendre et articuler leurs exp & eacute;riences de l'& eacute;chec en science.
Climate change is highly visible in scientific assessment, public debate, media coverage, and everyday experience, yet, this visibility does not automatically translate into sustained collective action. This article develops a conceptual framework for analyzing this gap through the notion of selective climate visibility. Drawing on scholarship in science and technology studies, environmental justice, agnotology, and the sociology of climate politics, it distinguishes three analytically separable dimensions: material opacity, unequal embodiment, and cognitive mediation. Material opacity concerns the relative backgrounding of infrastructures, supply chains, energy flows, and labor; unequal embodiment concerns unequal exposure to environmental harm and unequal capacities for protection; cognitive mediation concerns the ways climate knowledge is communicated, contested, and connected (or not connected) to political alternatives. Rather than positing a unified or all-powerful system, the framework examines the contingent relations among these dimensions and the conditions under which they are disrupted. Three analytical illustrations—electric-vehicle transition, Australia’s Black Summer bushfires, and United Nations climate conferences—explore how climate visibility may enable concern, mobilization, and controversy while leaving some material and political relations only partially connected. The article concludes by outlining a politics of re-visibilization centered on accountability, unequal vulnerability, public deliberation, and collectively feasible alternatives.
Theoretical approaches of international political economy have difficulty in categorizing China’s socioeconomic model. Neither is China socialist anymore nor has the country experienced full-scale capitalist reforms as in the former Soviet bloc. Market mechanisms have been secured in most industries while the state apparatus remains systematically influential through a variety of instruments. Three major concepts are applied in China’s mixed economic order, including socialism, state capitalism, and developmental state, none of which, however, are adequate to understand developments in contemporary China. A salient weakness is the absence of historical sociocultural and political institutional perspectives. The article proposes that China is developing a form of patrimonial market socialism which incorporates socialist, capitalist, and patrimonial components. The internal tensions and sustainability of the variant are also addressed. Although patrimonial market socialism is hardly a model for the Global South, it delivers lessons about economic growth and geopolitical implications for the West.
Although experimental science is renowned for its discoveries, conducting research often involves dealing with problems and setbacks in the research process. Such research endeavors are often marked as failures, even though they have produced new knowledge. This paper explores researchers’ perspectives on these issues, shedding light on how they navigate setbacks in the research process. By conducting participant observation and qualitative interviews within two research groups, one in biochemistry and one in optical physics, our study reveals that experimental scientists tend to reject the notion of failed research when faced with unexpected results or unanticipated challenges. Instead, they recognize these instances as learning opportunities rather than failure as an inevitable outcome. However, the concept of failure is applied selectively, particularly when recognition for scientific efforts is lacking. Using Bourdieu’s framework, we illustrate the nuanced categories and classifications that experimental researchers use to understand and articulate their experiences of failure in science.
