Conditions of assessment and positioning of the Humanities in national peripheral scientific environments: Case of the State of Chihuahua (Mexico)

Abstract

As a result of the current context of globalization, science communication has become a fundamental vehicle to publicize the advances in knowledge of each country for the purposes of internationalization and greater visibility, but this will be determined according to the characteristics and socioeconomic development of each geographical space. According to this, the partial results of the progress of a research based on the positioning and valuation of the humanities in the state of Chihuahua (Mexico) in relation to the national context are presented, under the approach of belonging to a peripheral environment of the science, governed by various conditions that do not allow it to stand out in its scientific recognition. To demonstrate such a condition, a simplified theoretical model called “Ecosystem for the assessment of scientific communication in the humanities in the state of Chihuahua” was generated in four dimensions: (1) conditions of knowledge generation in Mexican scientific journals of the humanities, (2) identification of peripheral and central national geographic environments in the humanities, (3) reality of scientific communication by researchers in the humanities, and (4) qualitative vision of the researchers. The progress of the research reveals the achievement of the first two dimensions and proposes the way of working for the completion of the remaining two dimensions. Brief conclusions are offered on the need for positioning of the humanities, both geographically and in comparison with other scientific disciplines, as well as the need to experience changes against the dependence on existing knowledge.