El oficio de científico social, entre bifurcaciones y convergencias.

The article is a review of the book "Senderos bifurcados, subjetividades convergentes. Trayectorias y experiencias científicas de investigadores sociales en Argentina, Colombia y México" written by César Guzmán Tovar. The book explores the motivations and experiences of social scientists in Latin America, focusing on the cases of Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. The author uses a sociological methodology based on listening to and telling stories to understand the subjectivities of researchers. The objective of the book is to generate a theory of the subjectivities of scientists in Latin America and examine how these subjectivities influence the construction of scientific knowledge. The article analyzes the working conditions and the structure of plausibility in scientific research in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. Through interviews with 39 researchers, it is revealed that scientific research has little importance for the states and that belonging to organizations such as CONACYT and CONICET is seen as a great aspiration. The importance of obtaining academic degrees to gain scientific recognition is highlighted, which has generated a market for degrees. Additionally, the overvaluation of articles in indexed journals is mentioned as an indicator of scientific prestige. The author proposes seeking collaborative survival and convergence to overcome precariousness in scientific activity. [Extracted from the article]