The concept of subordinate integration has an empirical origin when the author studied different research traditions in Europe and Latin America. It seems to allude to a kind of oxymoron in that the notion of integration seems to be semantically opposed to the notion of exclusion, and therefore it may be quite obvious that the notion of subordination implies some form of exclusion, at least as far as important decision making is concerned. And to the extent that those in a subordinate position appear to be subject to a higher authority, it is not natural to imagine that they can be integrated. This oxymoron is precisely what is interesting about this concept, because we are dealing with local scientific elites who often live-their practices, their imaginaries, their structure of social relations, even their languages-as if they were effectively integrated into an international scientific elite. However, their position in a broader social and cognitive organization is subject to numerous operations beyond their control. These operations refer both to what I have called epistemic (and agenda) control and to the possible applications and transfers of the knowledge in question to the industrial environment, since this process is infinitely more common in hegemonic contexts than in semi-peripheral ones.