Lobby na dinâmica coevolutiva entre agentes institucionais e instituições: o caso da interação entre o IMPA e as instituições da matemática

Abstract

Brazilian mathematics has stood out on the international scene, placing Brazil in the elite group of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), although the Brazilian National Innovation System (NIS) has a low investment in science and technology compared to other countries. Areas of knowledge are developed in a NIS through the initiatives of agents who have some kind of economic or non-economic interest in this development. These initiatives undertaken to influence decision-makers in favor of this interest can be classified as lobbying. Among the agents, the Public Research Institutes (PRIs) are fundamental to the development of areas of knowledge in NIS. However, the role of PRIs and their actions to influence institutions (rules, meanings, and norms/values) in these systems has been neglected by the literature. This research, therefore, analyzes the action of the lobby in the coevolutionary dynamics between an IPP and the institutions of a knowledge area in the Brazilian NIS. Among Brazilian PRIs, the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) is an emblematic case, that acquired national and international notoriety and contributed to NIS for its effective participation in the development of mathematics in the country. The case of the interaction between IMPA and the regulatory, cultural-cognitive, and normative institutions in the world of mathematics, between 1951 and 2019, was analyzed based on the literature about NIS, institutional work, and coevolution. Bibliometric data on scientific production in mathematics were examined and content analysis of documents, videos, and interviews were carried out. The results show that the institutional work actions worked as positive feedbacks in the coevolutionary dynamics between the PRI and the institutions over 68 years. Lobbying was identified in political work. This institutional work was undertaken mainly to change rules and mobilize resources for IMPA and mathematics area to establish themselves in Brazil, and the national scientific production, researchers, and the Institute were recognized internationally. The political work was complemented by technical and cultural works. Technical work influenced the cultural-cognitive pillar by forming mathematicians to enable the new institution to work. Cultural work changed the normative pillar by linking the Institute and Brazilian mathematics to a wider audience, like other national and international teaching and research institutions and civil society. The findings show that in specific contexts, such as the Brazilian NIS, a PRI of excellence can emerge and the area of knowledge can be consolidated through the institutional actions from different agents motivated by individual interests and coordinated towards reaching a common goal. This research contributes to theoretical discussions about NIS because it adds the institutional work to this literature. It raises questions regarding the level of the individual, specifically, about how the actions of researchers can influence institutions in these systems to develop an area of knowledge. From the analysis of the interaction between agents and institutions, this research also cross-fertilizes the coevolutionary perspective with the agency's approaches linked to institutional theory. Unlike empirical studies that treat the properties of coevolutionary dynamics indirectly, this research shows how these properties and the causal mechanisms are present in this dynamics.