Fernando A. Valenzuela

Sociologist | Knowledge Infrastructures

About


I am Fernando A. Valenzuela, Associate Professor and Director of the Sociology Program at Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile. I hold a PhD in Sociology from the University of Lucerne, Switzerland, as well as Licenciatura and MA degrees in Sociology from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

My current research examines the sociocultural aspects of knowledge infrastructures, with a particular focus on the "choreographies" that databases impose on humans. Building on Cussins' ontological choreography and Haraway's work on theaters of persuasion, I examine how the apparent solidity of digital infrastructures often conceals precarious arrangements of human labor, making visible universal processes of technological dependency through detailed ethnographic analysis.

Currently, I serve as Principal Investigator on the ANID Fondecyt project "The Hidden Life of Databases" (2025-2029), which examines how databases influence organizational practices across various sectors in Chile. My recent work has appeared in Science, Technology & Human Values, Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology, and Society, and other international journals.

My research trajectory spans from colonial art history to contemporary digital sociology, always focusing on how material practices and symbolic systems intersect. I have mentored seven doctoral dissertations to completion since 2015, contributing to the development of the next generation of scholars in sociology and critical theory.

Publications


Listar, narrar, sanar. La simbiosis de listado y narración en las tecnologías de inscripción del ánimo


Fernando A. Valenzuela

Cuadernos de Teoría Social, vol. 10(20), 2024, pp. 143-181


Standardizing excellence: metric assemblages in mathematics research in Chile


Fernando A. Valenzuela, María Isabel Cortez, Mariel Sáez, Andrea Vera-Gajardo

Science, Technology & Human Values, 2024


¿Cómo se definen los criterios que regulan la investigación? Cultura de la evaluación en la universidad chilena


David Marchant, Carla Fardella, Fernando A. Valenzuela

Educación en Digital, Julio Labraña, José Joaquín Brunner, Emilio Rodríguez-Ponce, Francisca Puyol, Redefiniendo la Educación Superior Chilena: Cambio Organizacional y Nuevas Formas de Gobernanza, Universidad Diego Portales, 2023, pp. 215-240


Shaping scientific work in universities in Chile: exploring the role of research management instruments


David Marchant-Cavieres, Carla Fardella, Fernando A. Valenzuela, J. Espinosa-Cristia, Paulina E. Varas, Claudio Broitman

Tapuya: Latin American Science Technology and Society, vol. 6(1), 2023, pp. 2572-9861


Reconfigurando usuarios de terapia ocupacional en estrategias de educación superior basadas en telesalud


Fernando A. Valenzuela, Eduardo Bustos, Cristian Valderrama

Sociología y Tecnociencia, vol. 13(2), 2023, pp. 1-23


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Projects




Urdimbres: The Hidden Life of Databases


The Hidden Life of Databases: Interdisciplinary research investigating how digital infrastructures influence organizational life in Chile. Studying the invisible yet powerful role of databases in shaping work, identity, and coordination.




Mathematics and Gender


Sociology study of women mathematicians in Chile examining career trajectories, institutional barriers, and gender dynamics in academia to inform STEM equity policies.




Telemedicine, Controversy, and Social Change


How does telemedicine reshape healthcare and society? This ethnographic study explored the social construction of distance medicine in Chile, uncovering how medical technologies simultaneously transform and are transformed by social life.




Data & Narratives


Science and Technology Studies project examining how social scientific data and narratives performatively shape Chilean social reality through socio-material assemblages, using Actor-Network Theory and performativity frameworks.




Art as Communication in Early World Society


Sociological analysis of colonial Andean painting as a form of communication, examining how visual ornamentation enabled intercultural meaning-making in peripheral contexts of early world society through Luhmann's systems theory.

Contact


Fernando A. Valenzuela

Sociologist | Knowledge Infrastructures


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