University and «environments»: reflections on university linking and designing university policies in Argentina

Abstract

Introduction

This paper analyzes university and the social and productive environment links in Argentina

Objective

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to the reflection on university institutions and their participation in the «knowledge society», and to generate some ideas about interactive processes between university actors and productive, governmental, and civil society actors, with the aim of outline an inclusive conceptual framework of the various practices that are part of this phenomenon.

Method

Given the reflective nature of the article, the methodology used is the conceptual critical review of a corpus of works and approaches that has analyzed the relationship between the university and socio-productive environments and a systematization of the different theoretical approaches on the «environment» concept.

Results

The ideal modeling that underlies many studies conceived to account for interactive dynamics between universities and the environment in countries with greater scientific development do not allow us to fully grasp the logic of technological linkage or university extension activities in local contexts, nor the characteristics of the territorial, productive, and political-cultural environments that contain the interactive processes of our universities with non-academic actors.

Conclusions

As a conclusion, this paper suggests some guidelines to accompany the design of university policies to link with the socio-productive environment that are more effective and appropriate to the socio-techno-territorial areas in which they take place.