Abstract

SOSIUK, Ezequiel. Ciencia y problemas sociales: la construcción de los pingüinos de Magallanes como especie en peligro. Cienc. docencia tecnol. [online]. 2020, n.61, pp.78-88. ISSN 1851-1716.  http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.33255/3161/733.

I present and discuss various approaches that analyze the role of scientists in the construction of social problems. I am interested in discussing some naive perspectives that argue that scientists only participate in the production of social problems by proposing objective solutions. He argued, on the contrary, that scientists actively participate both in defining what is «objectively» problematic and what is the «scientific» solution. I take as a case study the problematization by Wildlife, one of the most influential conservation NGOs globally, of the Magellan penguins as an endangered species. I explain how their researchers built a conservation problem through the development of lobby activities in front of political and scientific institutions and the development of equipped and technified scientific networks in Patagonia. In the conclusions I explain how the scientific definition of certain phenomena as problematic has consequences in the political forms of intervention on society.

Keywords : Social and Knowledge problems; endangered species; Maguellanin penguins; Wildlife Conservation Society.