Peripheral vaccine promises in Latin America: Expectations, coalitions, and sovereignty

Gabriela Bortz, María Cecilia Sanmartin and Elize Massard da Fonseca

Chapter 10 in Handbook of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology Studies, 2026, pp 159-180 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: From the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines became the paramount solution to the global health crisis. As major pharmaceutical companies focused on design and production in high-income countries, vaccine nationalism intensified inequalities in access, particularly for low- and middle-income nations. By April 2021 Latin America accounted for 15 percent of cases and 28 percent of deaths globally (Schwalb et al., 2022). In response, some Latin American countries pursued homegrown vaccine development, leveraging autonomous research and development or technology transfer to increase supply. Amid inequalities, the pandemic redefined the state's role in safeguarding its citizens and underscored the potential of science and technology to address social challenges. This chapter explores the political economy of peripheral technoscientific promises through a qualitative analysis of COVID-19 vaccine development in Argentina, Brazil, and Cuba. It examines how vaccine R&D and manufacturing aspirations were shaped by coalitions mobilizing narratives of sovereignty and visions for desirable futures through science and technology. We analyze how these dynamics reshaped center–periphery relations, focusing on how these countries conceptualized vaccine development, build coalitions by aligning actors, national capacities, imaginaries, and artifacts, thereby locking in specific paths and reinforcing or challenging sociotechnical orders.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccines; Technoscientific promises; Vaccine sovereignty; Latin America; Sociology of expectations; Center–periphery relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035338443
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