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From a decolonial perspective, and taking Latin America as its case study, this article discusses southern criminology --a body of work that has consolidated in the region and other Global South countries, and that aims at explaining crime and violence, together with the social control responses they elicit, as part of the colonial matrix of power. The article claims that southern criminology has the potential to contribute to the discussion of crime, violence, and social control in Latin America in at least two aspects: first, it may provide an incisive analysis of the relations between different forms of violence and subordination, on the one hand, and the punitive and exclusive responses of Latin American political regimes to these phenomena, on the other. Second, it may contribute a suggestive explanation of how the forms of social control that have emerged in different countries of the region since their birth as independent republics are closely linked to the construction of political, economic, and social orders that are part of the colonial matrix of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this interview, Roberto Manero Brito presents the developments of institutional analysis in Latin America, particularly its connection with the Argentine group dynamic trend. Instituting, self-management, and general assembly, among other mobilizing myths, took on a unique form in this continent through the intersection of psychoanalysis, group work, and the desire for social change. Manero notes that institutional analysis in Latin America has been guided more by a logic of mestizaje than by an illusion of theoretical-technical purity. To integrate this perspective into the realm of education in social sciences, the field needs to be prioritized, the research assignments questioned, and a specific relationship between social knowledge and specialized knowledge established, centered on listening and a transition from empathy to sympathy. Questioning academic structures and building a sense of community around research and intervention issues are key elements for this transition. The final part of the interview focuses on the promotional orientation of social psychology, specifically the commitment to the collective construction of knowledge and the creation of new social meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]