National scientific system, IMAF, FAMAF and the emergence of the Computer Science program

Abstract

This work historically reconstructs the emergence of the Computer Science program at the Faculty of Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics and Computer Science (FAMAF) of the National University of Córdoba (UNC), contextualizing its appearance within the Argentine scientific system. It is an excerpt from a larger work developed as the Final Integrative Project of the Specialization in Public Communication of Science and Scientific Journalism jointly offered by FAMAF and the FCC of the UNC. It utilizes the institutional concepts of North (1995), Elias's processual approach (2015), and Bourdieu's notion of scientific field (2000) as a theoretical framework to analyze the internal and external disputes that led to the program's formation in 1992. The institutional trajectory of the Institute of Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics (IMAF) is reviewed from its founding in 1956 to its transformation into a faculty in 1983, underscoring the role of Enrique Gaviola and the position occupied in the scientific field as key actors in its creation. Through the analysis of documentary sources, testimonies, and interviews, tensions are identified between the scientificist orientation of the IMAF and the context of national university and technological planning. It combines oral history, analysis of institutional sources (such as the minutes of the Directing Council), and bibliographic tracing. An interpretation is proposed that articulates academic trajectories, power struggles, scientific capital, and institutional transformations.