This paper discusses the theoretical aspects of the relationship between scientific and technological production of universities and local development. The central argument is that this relationship is potentialized when produced knowledge permits the occupation of a position in the scientific field and is linked to specific forms of local insertion. In the context of globalization, which keeps the center-periphery structure of the world economic system practically intact, articulation is proposed between global and local dimensions of the environment. The recovery of theoretical-empirical categories formulated by Economic Commission for Latin-America and the Caribbean helps to place the discussion in a political sphere, and to characterize local development as an expression of social change on territorially demarcated scales.El siguiente artículo discute los aspectos teóricos de la relación entre la producción científica y tecnológica de las universidades y su desarrollo local. El argumento central es que esta relación es potenciada cuando el conocimiento producido permite la ocupación de la posición en el campo científico y su vínculo con las formas específicas de inserción local. En el contexto de la globalización, donde se mantiene la estructura centro-periferia de un sistema mundial económico prácticamente intacto, se propone a la articulación entre las dimensiones de los ambientes global y local. La recuperación de las categorías teórica-empírica formuladas por la Comisión Económica para Latinoamérica y Caribe ayuda a poner en el plano político ésta discusión, y de caracterizar el desarrollo local como una expresión del cambio social en las escalas demarcadas territorialmente.This paper discusses the theoretical aspects of the relationship between scientific and technological production of universities and local development. The central argument is that this relationship is potentialized when produced knowledge permits the occupation of a position in the scientific field and is linked to specific forms of local insertion. In the context of globalization, which keeps the center-periphery structure of the world economic system practically intact, articulation is proposed between global and local dimensions of the environment. The recovery of theoretical-empirical categories formulated by Economic Commission for Latin-America and the Caribbean helps to place the discussion in a political sphere, and to characterize local development as an expression of social change on territorially demarcated scales.