{"id":3243,"date":"2026-11-04T10:51:37","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/?p=3243"},"modified":"2026-11-04T10:54:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:54:50","slug":"public-science-and-the-limits-of-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/public-science-and-the-limits-of-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Science and the Limits of the Public"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes (November 2, 2026)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After a long period of uncertainty, the Supreme Court of Justice ruled on various elements of the General Law on Humanities, Sciences, Technologies, and Innovation, enacted during the previous presidential administration. The discussion is broad, involving legal, economic, and public policy issues. One topic that has attracted the most national attention concerns the National System of Researchers, the well-known SNII. I write this text from two very particular positions. The first is that I work at a private university and belong to the SNII. The second is as a researcher interested, from the perspective of political philosophy, in the concept of the public.<\/p>\n<p>The 2018 change of government, under the self-described Fourth Transformation, or 4T, proposed various changes to how science should be funded. Those who now form part of the government, when they were in opposition, denounced opaque and poorly traceable management of resources allocated to this field. They also pointed to investments intended to favor private interests and to corrupt practices in fund allocation. The diagnosis was plausible and, in many cases, identified important issues that needed to be reviewed and that were, in fact, taking place.<\/p>\n<p>The problem, however, came with the new vision that was proposed and the solutions derived from it. One key element in understanding this is what the government means by \u201cpublic,\u201d who defines it, and how that definition is implemented. In its discourse, it suggests that science should be oriented toward problems relevant to the country, a plausible understanding of the public: what is of collective interest. It also seeks to make resource allocation transparent, another relevant notion of the public, understood as the opposite of what is hidden. Finally, it argues that science should be accessible to everyone, so everyone can participate in it and use it. All three elements are commendable; nevertheless, in practice, they have not been fully developed.<\/p>\n<p>The orientation toward relevant problems has been implemented vertically and has not been the subject of broad, participatory discussion. Transparency, as we know, has been weakened by the elimination of the institutions that protected Mexicans\u2019 right to information. And access to science has been more demagogic than real. Institutions and researchers are asked to make their work public. Still, public policies fail to provide greater access to research positions for new generations or to increase the budgets allocated to science.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, the way the government defines the public to decide who can access the SNII\u2019s financial incentives is highly problematic. Private universities are part of the country\u2019s educational, research, and technological development infrastructure. Mexico is far from a situation in which its public institutions alone can fully meet these three needs. It is therefore contradictory to exclude private universities from state resources solely on the basis of a binary classification. In public discussions, it is important to distinguish, rather than conflate, the origin of resources, the legal nature of institutions, and the character of the knowledge they produce. Researchers who work at private universities also produce public knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>The problem of the public in relation to science is not resolved by eliminating financial incentives drawn from public resources for researchers at private universities. The problem lies in understanding and debating what we mean by public science and who has the right and legitimacy to define it. Only then would come the long process of building public policies aligned with this conception of the public.<\/p>\n<p>This was a production by Juan Larrosa for NTR Radio News. If you would like to read this commentary, visit my blog at triple double u dot juan hyphen larrosa dot com. Until next time.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This text was originally broadcast on NTR Radio News on November 2, 2026, hosted by journalist Sonia Serrano.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\">By Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes (November 2, 2026) After a long period of uncertainty, the Supreme Court of Justice ruled on various elements of the General Law on Humanities, Sciences, Technologies, and Innovation, enacted during the previous presidential administration. The discussion is broad, involving legal, economic, and public policy issues. One topic that has attracted the most national attention concerns the&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/public-science-and-the-limits-of-the-public\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"nfd_image_url":"","nfd_onboarding_generated":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[658],"tags":[657,66,475,665,667,14,660,364,163,661,669,585,670,659,662,671,664,663,668,644,666,672],"class_list":["post-3243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public-science","tag-4t","tag-comunicacion-politica","tag-fourth-transformation","tag-general-law-on-humanities-sciences-technologies-and-innovation","tag-higher-education","tag-mexico","tag-national-system-of-researchers","tag-ntr-radio","tag-political-communication","tag-private-universities","tag-public-knowledge","tag-public-policy","tag-public-resources","tag-public-science","tag-public-universities","tag-right-to-science","tag-science-funding","tag-science-policy","tag-scientific-research","tag-snii","tag-supreme-court-of-justice-of-the-nation","tag-transparency","xfolkentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3190,"url":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/cell-phones-out-of-the-classroom-just-a-first-step\/","url_meta":{"origin":3243,"position":0},"title":"Cell Phones Out of the Classroom: Just a First Step","author":"Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes","date":"21 September, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"By Juan Larrosa, September 21, 2026 At today\u2019s morning press conference, it was announced that the Ministry of Public Education and the National Council of Educational Authorities (CONAEDU) reached an agreement to restrict the use of cell phones or smartphones in primary and secondary school classrooms. This restriction includes the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication literacy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication literacy","link":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/category\/communication-literacy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":817,"url":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/elecciones-en-estados-unidos-comunicacion-politica-y-comunidades-latinas\/","url_meta":{"origin":3243,"position":1},"title":"Elecciones en Estados Unidos, comunicaci\u00f3n pol\u00edtica y comunidades latinas","author":"Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes","date":"21 November, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Unas semanas antes de que concluyeran las campa\u00f1as electorales en Estados Unidos, Darren Lilleker, Daniel Jackson, Einar Thorsen y Anastasia Veneti, acad\u00e9micos expertos en comunicaci\u00f3n pol\u00edtica, abrieron una convocatoria mundial para crear un libro en el que investigadores de todo el mundo pudieran publicar sus primeras impresiones sobre este proceso\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comunicaci\u00f3n Pol\u00edtica&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comunicaci\u00f3n Pol\u00edtica","link":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/category\/comunicacion-politica\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"US Election Analysis 2016: Media, Voters and the Campaign. Early reflections from leading academics","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-20-at-5.18.09-PM.png?fit=849%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-20-at-5.18.09-PM.png?fit=849%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-20-at-5.18.09-PM.png?fit=849%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-20-at-5.18.09-PM.png?fit=849%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":821,"url":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/elecciones-en-estados-unidos-comunicacion-politica-y-comunidades-latinas\/","url_meta":{"origin":3243,"position":2},"title":"2016 US Presidential Elections &#038; Latino Communities","author":"Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes","date":"21 November, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Darren Lilleker, Daniel Jackson, Einar Thorsen y Anastasia Veneti edited a book about the 2016 United States Presidential Elections, with a particular emphasis on media and political communication. In this book, I published the article\u00a0\"A Bilingual Campaign: Clinton\u2019s Latino Political Communication.\" Here you can download the entire book, and here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Doctoral Dissertation Project&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Doctoral Dissertation Project","link":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/category\/doctoral-dissertation-project-en\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"US Elections","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-20-at-5.18.09-PM.png?fit=849%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-20-at-5.18.09-PM.png?fit=849%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-20-at-5.18.09-PM.png?fit=849%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Screen-Shot-2016-11-20-at-5.18.09-PM.png?fit=849%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":715,"url":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/18-anos-de-gobiernos-panistas-en-jalisco\/","url_meta":{"origin":3243,"position":3},"title":"18 Years of PAN&#8217;s Party Government in Jalisco","author":"Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes","date":"9 May, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In February 2013, QITESO: Critical Media Analysis and Public Policy and Management Master\u2019s of ITESO University, convened various professors and scholars to conduct an initial analysis and balance on the eighteen years of government of the PAN in Jalisco. After this collective work of analyzing the PAN as a political\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Electoral Campaigns in Mexico&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Electoral Campaigns in Mexico","link":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/category\/political-communication\/electoral-campaigns-in-mexico\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/ChFvfKPWwAAgx0v-1.jpg-large-copy-1-e1462810138987.jpg?fit=500%2C388&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":976,"url":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/una-agenda-para-los-observatorios-de-medios-en-mexico\/","url_meta":{"origin":3243,"position":4},"title":"A Research-Agenda for Media Observatories in Mexico","author":"Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes","date":"30 April, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This article was published in Revista Z\u00f3calo (May, 2017). If you want to read the article, click here. \u00a0 In historical terms, media observatories were born in the late 1990s in Brazil and at the beginning of the following decade, in 2002, at the World Social Forum. However, the ideas\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Media Observatories&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Media Observatories","link":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/category\/media-observatories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Revista-Z%C3%B3calo-Mayo-2016.png?fit=965%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Revista-Z%C3%B3calo-Mayo-2016.png?fit=965%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Revista-Z%C3%B3calo-Mayo-2016.png?fit=965%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Revista-Z%C3%B3calo-Mayo-2016.png?fit=965%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":843,"url":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/making-sense-of-election-2016-a-political-communication-perspective\/","url_meta":{"origin":3243,"position":5},"title":"&#8220;Making Sense of Election 2016&#8221;: a Political Communication Perspective","author":"Juan S. Larrosa-Fuentes","date":"9 February, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I attended the conference \"Making Sense of Election 2016,\" which was organized by the Aggie Agora team and the Texas A&M University. The meeting included relevant keynote speakers in the fields of political science and communication, such as Julia Azari, Daniel Kreiss, John Murphy, and Jennifer Stromer-Galley. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Political Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Political Communication","link":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/category\/political-communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-6.27.32-AM.png?fit=1200%2C232&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-6.27.32-AM.png?fit=1200%2C232&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-6.27.32-AM.png?fit=1200%2C232&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-6.27.32-AM.png?fit=1200%2C232&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-09-at-6.27.32-AM.png?fit=1200%2C232&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Hsnc-Qj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3244,"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions\/3244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juan-larrosa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}