ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the role played by Latin American governments in the process of professionalization of teaching and research. Mediation processes notably include Latin American diplomacy, which has proven to provide highly relevant empirical evidence for our studies, as it has enabled us to find causal relations to explain the emergence of peripheral centers. The surveys conducted revealed the unique elasticity of academic autonomy in Latin America, and led us to focus on its expansion and contraction regarding the institutional setting, research capacities, scientific production process and intellectual freedom during the second half of the twentieth century. This first level of institutional differentiation is associated with university autonomy a long-established tradition in Latin America, featured in many national constitutions, starting in 1918 with Argentina's university reform movement. Latin America's reformist tradition started with a student rebellion at Universidad de Cordoba Argentina in June 1918 and spread across several Latin American countries from 1919 through 1930.
