Sociology

Sociology as a discipline emerged in Latin America during the mid-twentieth century, but contributions to sociological issues and concerns are as old as Latin American civilizations. The writings of some pre-Conquest thinkers, many Catholic priests, and post-Conquest native scholars deal with problems of culture, inequality, and government. Sociologically significant ideas about domination, divided societies, culture, and intersocietal dynamics were developed between Independence and World War II. However, no disciplinary identity or institutional support was present. Between the war and 1980, sociology emerged as a discipline in universities, government agencies, and multigovernmental agencies such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Many Spanish and Portuguese language journals emerged in this period. Most of the sociological research and writing was viewed as being of interest only to other Latin American sociologists with the findings applying only to Latin America. However, Gino Germani, Pablo Casanova, and Enrique Cardoso were exceptions, making major contributions to sociological perspectives through their theories of modernity, dependency, internal colonialism, marginality, and democratic processes. Since the early 1980s sociology has made significant contributions to the understanding of Latin America and society in general. The theories and research focus on issues and problems in Latin America, but the results are applicable well beyond the region. Contributions have been made to knowledge of postmodernity, postcolonialism, subalternity, cultural hybridity, and indigenous peoples.

Sociology is a discipline with a tradition of active involvement in reform movements and social justice. Most Latin American sociologists are socially and politically active in efforts to criticize current conditions and remedy inequality, domination, and exploitation by seeking to reform societies through involvement in democratic action and resistance to governmental oppression.

Two major features characterize Latin American sociology in the early twenty-first century. First, it is closely related and responsive to issues in sociology in the United States and Europe. It has become a meeting ground for sociologists who were trained in the United States, Europe, and Latin America as a hybridization of diverse ideas and experiences from the three regions. Many Latin American sociologists contribute to understandings of internationally important processes such as inequality, stratification, consumerism, globalization, modernization, and gender. They employ concepts that are widely accepted such as social and human capital, postmodernity, and globalization, but they are not simply borrowers of the ideas. They have provided significant amplifications. Some of the unique features of Latin American sociology focus on issues of democracy, liberation, and socialism. Issues of the deepening of democracy to include the poor and native peoples are crucial.

Second, these same sociologists reflect the national and local issues they encounter. This leads to sociologies that are national as well as global. Poverty is present worldwide, but it has unique characteristics as an Argentine or Mexican problem. Local definitions and efforts to deal with it vary. Brazilian, Argentine, and Mexican sociologists deal with the problems of emerging democracy and globalization. Bolivian sociologists focus on the problems of democracy in a country where a large part of the population is indigenous and becoming politically active. Studies of the Caribbean, the Southern Cone, the Andes, and indigenous Mexico contain elements that seek to account for the enormous diversity in experience and problems. These sociologists offer an important view of sociology from the periphery with insights often missed by sociologists from the United States and Europe.

See alsoClass Structure in Modern Latin America; Democracy; Globalization; Race and Ethnicity; Sexuality: Gender and Sexuality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cardoso, Fernando. Dependencia y desarrollo en América Latina: Ensayos de interpretatión sociologica. Mexico: Siglo XXI Editores, 1984.

García Canclini, Néstor. Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.

Germani, Gino. Marginality. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1980.

Germani, Gino. The Sociology of Modernization: Studies on Its Historical and Theoretical Aspects with Special Regard to the Latin American Case. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1981.

González Casanova, Pablo, and Marcos Roitman Rosenmann, eds. Democracia y estado multiétnico en América Latina. Mexico: Jornada Ediciones UNAM, 1996.

Kahl, Joseph. Modernization, Exploitation, and Dependency in Latin America: Germani, Gonzalez Casanova, and Cardoso. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1976.

Mires, Fernando. El discurso de la Indianidad: La cuestion indigena en America Latina. Quito: Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1992.

                                           Lynn England