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Collaboration for Sustainability and Innovation: A Role For Sustainability Driven by the Global South? pp 25–42Cite as

Challenges of Cross-Border Collaboration: Knowledge Networks for Innovation and Sustainability in the Global South

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Part of the book series: Greening of Industry Networks Studies ((GINS,volume 3))

Abstract

Despite many efforts to describe and characterize collaborative research on complex problems, conditions for success are not yet rigorously grounded on actual cases (Podestá et~al. Environmental Science & Policy, 26, 40–48, 2012). To compensate this lack of empirical work on specific cases, the chapter describes insights gained during a study of collaboration in three international (US-Argentina) climate variability research projects where the authors were co-investigators. Conclusions arisen which illustrate the relevance of connectivity that foster or impede collaborative production of high-quality, useable knowledge, should be an essential component of projects involving scientists, practitioners and stakeholders. Mostly as they include participants with different nationalities and backgrounds who must collectively define a new set of shared principles, concepts and aims. Monitoring and reflection must also implicate institutions (planning and funding agencies, universities, research institutes, GOs and NGOs, etc.) which are currently rehearsing their first steps in such a complex type of collaboration. The chapter present observations from various stages of the projects and extract lessons that will contribute both to design “best practices” and metrics of success in different collaborative settings and to expose some underlying assumptions about how collaboration processes occur, one of the goals of this special volume.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Following Todt (2006) this may be analyzed both as a direct response to the social conflict affecting the development of different modern technologies, and as an intend to counter a pronounced loss of public trust of the citizens in regulatory decision making.

  2. 2.

    A more detailed account on the methodological approach can be found in (Hidalgo 2008; Hidalgo et al. 2010, 2011).

  3. 3.

    See Luchilo (2006) for an analysis of international mobility of university students, as a major expression of the mobility of qualified personnel and a relevant facet of the internationalization of higher education.

  4. 4.

    Countries like Argentina have started to pull back and retain their skilled people, cf. Programa Raíces (Roots Programme).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems grants 0410348 and 0709681, by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) grant CRN-3035 and by the University of Buenos Aires through UBACyT grants F184 and F392. We are grateful to Guillermo Podesta (Univ. of Miami) who has discussed and worked with us many of the present issues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Puan 480, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Cecilia Hidalgo & Claudia E. Natenzon

  2. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Sede Argentina, Ayacucho 555, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Claudia E. Natenzon

Authors
  1. Cecilia Hidalgo
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  2. Claudia E. Natenzon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cecilia Hidalgo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom

    Diego A. Vazquez-Brust

  2. School of Business, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

    Joseph Sarkis

  3. Brockport College at Brockport, State University of New York, Brockport, New York, USA

    James J. Cordeiro

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Hidalgo, C., Natenzon, C.E. (2014). Challenges of Cross-Border Collaboration: Knowledge Networks for Innovation and Sustainability in the Global South. In: Vazquez-Brust, D., Sarkis, J., Cordeiro, J. (eds) Collaboration for Sustainability and Innovation: A Role For Sustainability Driven by the Global South?. Greening of Industry Networks Studies, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7633-3_2

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