Towards 21 st Century Engendered Development? From ’Information’ to ’Knowledge’ Societies: Argentina in the Context of Regional ’Globalization’

Abstract

This article contributes to the ongoing debate over the nature and dynamics of information and knowledge-based development, underlying possible transitions from Information to Knowledge Societies, and reflects on its engendered implications on the basis of the Argentine experience (1990s-2000s). To this effect it is necessary to distinguish between the neo-Liberal and Liberal (institutional) theoretical paradigms in order to elucidate, from a critical perspective, the dynamics of the ’virtuous Circle’ linking information, knowledge, work organization, and development, and the congenial regulatory framework deemed necessary to translate that virtuosity into practice in different macroregions of the world. This is still a missing component of the feminist agenda in Southern Latin America.

I also examine the viability and some of the engendered consequences of the application of the neo-Liberal project on Information Societies in Argentina, in the context of contemporary regional ’Globalization’ expressed in the construction of MERCOSUR (the Common Market of the South). What lessons can we draw from this exercise as a contribution to the theoretical and political construction of a renewed national and regional ’gender aware’ information-cum-knowledge development agenda, and to the defense of the economic, social, and cultural rights, as indivisible dimensions of Human Rights of women (and men)?