Informative Explosion Revisited: Bibliographic Control and Scientific Hegemonies

Abstract

This article reviews the history of bibliographic control and one of its basic tools –the periodical journal–, based on four moments in the development of serials and how they are associated with the processes of knowledge delimitation, as well as the emergence of its hegemonic forms. It reveals how the explosion of information is actually part of a recurrent rhetorical strategy led by relevant social actors in their struggle for the hegemonic control of the production of certified knowledge.