Production of interdisciplinary Knowledge: A conceptual model of scientific knowledge management in the UFSCar’s Graduate Program in Science, Technology and Society

Abstract

Introduction: people, receiving relevant information, are able to use them in their decision-making, become more flexible, and are able to visualize previously unexplored paths, thereby projecting new horizons. In business, Knowledge Management, more than people do, involves their knowledge and skills. Organizations depend on how people use their knowledge to address new issues and trends collectively in their work environments. Objective: in this context, the general objective of this research is to propose a conceptual model of scientific collaboration that can show how or not it establishes the interdisciplinarity during the ten years of research development in the UFSCar’s Graduate Program in Science, Technology and Society of the Federal University of São Carlos. Method: the research has an exploratory character, in a qualitative and quantitative approach, comprising the following stages of bibliographic and documentary research; collection of empirical data, referring to PPGCTS teachers and students and treatment of the data with the aid of the VantagePoint software; and analysis of empirical data in the light of theories and concepts of interdisciplinarity and scientific collaboration. Results: the results obtained show interactions, associating the individual intellectual capital of each member of the Program and, with this, fosters new ideas and solutions, giving greater visibility to the collaborative scientific production of the Program, making it better positioned in the Brazilian educational scenario. Conclusions: the construction of a conceptual model of scientific collaboration for the production of interdisciplinary knowledge allows not only to contribute to better explain the trajectory of the scientific production of the Program up to this moment, but, mainly, to gather subsidies to project its future in a perspective of generating collaborative and, consequently, interdisciplinary knowledge.