Abstract

CANCINO SALAS, Ronald. Socio-technical constraints of political decisions: The Chilean tsunami of February 27, 2010. Rev. iberoam. cienc. tecnol. soc. [online]. 2014, vol.9, n.25, pp.161-180. ISSN 1850-0013.

After the earthquake of February 27, 2010, in Chile, one of the most widespread criticisms in mass media was the lack of information, the perplexity and the inoperative political decisions linked to the evacuation of the population in the coastal areas along the Pacific. We are faced with a problem of governance and management of knowledge and scientific information that may have several causes: the magnitude of the natural disaster that may have left people with no chance to react; the political responsibility for delayed decision-making; and the deficient technological infrastructure and technical level of the civil servants. The article emphasizes the link between science, technology and society and indicates that the socio-technical network that produces and circulates information and knowledge is that which creates the conditions of possibility in these complex social situations. The problem of the "alarm" is thus analyzed as a technical-symbolic condenser that renders comprehensible the way in which the operators of scientific information, their networks and the problem of the maps and metrology in use are assembled. The problem is approached from the point of view of the political complexity of the controversy that the events of February 27, 2010, ignited in Chile and the way in which a scientific controversy plays out in the public domain

Keywords : Socio-technical controversies; Disasters; Complexity.

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