Every knowledge producer linked to an institution has experienced the imperatives that, through rules and hierarchies, channel the production of knowledge and limit the results generated there.

These are common practices in institutions dedicated to producing knowledge: the imposition of methods, of theories that do not explain local contexts, or the exclusion of voices considered illegitimate for producing knowledge. Any researcher attached to an institution must deal with a superlative valuation of certain means of scientific dissemination and with little interest in disseminating contributions that escape the mainstream. As if that were not enough, bureaucracy is a permanent obstacle to scientific work.

The authors of La horizontalidad en las instituciones: ¿Perspectiva o paradoja? explore and elaborate critical visions from their respective research experiences. It is a reflection on knowledge and institutions that covers very diverse areas: science and technology, international cooperation, education and culture, as well as the production of knowledge in health and judicial institutions.

In the face of organizations that rationalize and limit the emergence of original and novel thinking to confront the innumerable problems and global crises, this book reflects on how to create institutional conditions that favor the processes of scientific autonomy. Is the horizontality of knowledge in institutions a realistic project or rather two antithetical and irreconcilable scenarios? Is it a perspective or a paradox?