Competition and alliances among researchers: refl ections about the expansion of research groups during the years 1990 to 2000 in Brazil

Abstract

The paper examines a dimension of the development of science in Brazil from the perspective of social actors, analyzing how research groups are characterized as strategies for investigators in an attempt to overcome the increasing competition in the scientifi c fi eld in Brazil. In the last decade of the twentieth century, the Brazilian “scientifi c community” was marked by a signifi cant expansion in the number of research groups, which continued in the years subsequent to 2000. This paper argues that this expansion of the formation of research group is linked to the increasing competition in the scientifi c environment and to the recurrence of the creation of alliances between researchers who, acting through organized research groups, seek to better participate in the distribution of resources, both fi nancial and symbolic, and to more effectively occupy spaces in the scientifi c community.