Latin America before the challenge of information and communications technologies

Abstract

The current state in informatics, derived from technological change and the global capitalist expansionism, has affected dramatically the international markets as well as the technological paths that sustain industrial development. This is also true for the scientific basis activities. At the same time, the enterprise restructuring that has transformed the Fordist-Taylorist productive process, from the Keynesian standpoint on flexible production, has had a profound impact in all aspects of the system: with the incorporation of the manufacturing systems in the context of informatics and mechatronics, as well as information and communication technologies (ICT). This restructuring has defined the relationship between industrial innovation and academia in all countries, above all in those that set the production pace and dominate the international market.