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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]

Although the study of religious phenomena from the perspective of lived religion was born in the North Atlantic countries, several researchers have adopted this approach in the Latin American context to account for the religious fact and its evolution. This orientation responds to the dissatisfaction with the conclusions reached by classical sociological theories when they try to explain the place and meaning of religion in the context of Latin American modernity, as in the case of the theories on secularization. This approach has proved promising, insofar as it offers evidence of the presence of the religious phenomenon in contemporary society that has not been sufficiently taken into account before. But, at the same time, it presents aspects that need to be clarified and/or developed. One of them is the relationship between lived religion and the theoretical frameworks that, from the different social sciences, are intended to explain the religious phenomenon. This article offers some considerations on the fruitful relationship that can be established between lived religion and the phenomenology of religion. It identifies aspects in which both disciplines complement and enrich each other, as well as critical issues to be taken into account. Specifically, it proposes a phenomenological approach to two distinct and, at the same time, intertwined fields of analysis: lived religion and lived spirituality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to make a succinct approximation of the current status of Genocide Studies, based on bibliographic tracing and an approach to some of the main texts of the discipline, specifically those that in Latin America and Colombia have contributed in recent years to the development of the discipline on this side of the continent. Although Genocide Studies in Colombia have been taking place for a little over a decade, their development is still in its early stages, and there is a gap in the scientific literature that accounts for the state of the art and the dissemination of the existence of the discipline itself in the Colombian academic environment. In this sense, the present article has as its fundamental purpose to resolve deficiencies that contribute to this meager display of the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the 55 years of the Theory of the Unit in 2019, this essay aims to show the impact that this revolution had on the emergence of Latin American social sciences based on a critical thinking that questions the hegemonic paradigms characteristic of scientific positivism with Eurocentric and colonial inspiration. Although the essay considers some other elements of explanatory context of the emergence of critical social sciences, it highlights and focuses on the impact that this continental historical event had, not only on Latin American revolutionary movements, but also on intellectuality and academia, especially in the sixties of the last century. To do this, it briefly presents the political and ideological scope of the revolution and the "spirit of the age" that it generates, with the intention of showing the way in which some of its postulates were received, enriched and developed by the social sciences of the region in the early sixties of the twentieth century, all of which goes through a brief review of the hegemonic theories up to that point in the social sciences of Latin America. The essay is not historical, which is why it does not stop at the construction of a story of events and actors; but rather of a theoretical nature, insofar as it tries to move in the plane of categories and concepts typical of the acquis of these disciplines and ways of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes to develop a critical reflection based on Latin American Geography and the Social Sciences, about the relationship between regional dynamics and the categories Latin America and the Caribbean. The objective is to analyze the possible insufficiency of European universalism on the Latin American and Caribbean nomenclatures in the face of cultural and territorial specificities and counter-hegemonic social processes. The qualitative method will guide the methodology, based on the interpretation of classic and contemporary bibliographic materials to analyze other alternatives of regionalization displaced from the economic, colonial and imperialist essentialism of traditional cartography. We believe in other possible languages of different cartographies according to different regions of the continent, based on historical aspects, theoretical critiques, migratory flows, ethnic-racial populations, socio-spatial distribution of economic groups and political-ideological aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion in the public space constitutes a structuring issue of the contemporary debates of the social sciences of religion. This article mobilizes part of that literature, circumscribing it to the Latin American context. In that attempt, we work in two dimensions. First, we present how, from the historical and political configurations of our region in the debate, problems and questions about the public space are addressed distant from those commonly encountered when the empirical reference corresponds to the United States-Europe map. The aim is to explore the regional particularities for an effort to theoretically and methodologically strengthen the analysis of this topic. The second dimension contemplated in the text is the presentation of concrete empirical situations in which religion in public space is condensed as a controversy, that mobilize and is mobilized by different actors: politicians, religious, academics, media. These two dimensions go through the thematic issue that follows this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the main interpretations and formulations of the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal and the Brazilian sociologist Ruy Mauro Marini on underdevelopment and the Marxist theory of dependence, respectively, on underdevelopment and the Marxist theory of dependence, respectively, on underdevelopment and the Marxist theory of dependence, respectively, and their contributions on the Centre-Periphery relation inscribed in the critique of the orthodox perspective of world economy. In this debate, we highlight the concepts of Circular Causalism and Unequal Interchange, as well as other concepts of the theoretical framework exposed in the development of the work. Understanding their contributions as alternative to the hegemonic theoretical axis for the social and economic sciences, in their own time and place, we seek to delineate the aspects in which the approaches of these authors converge and diverge among themselves. Among the converging points between the two theorists, the spatial dynamics of unequal development are cited as a reference for analysis, the rejection of the assumptions of neoclassical theory with the tendency of automatic stabilization of the socioeconomic system. However, Myrdal supports his analysis with a systemic approach, with an integrated development plan, with an emphasis on institutionalist roots to respond to the challenges for underdeveloped regions. Marini, in turn, emphasizes the exploitation of the labor force in underdeveloped countries and the revolutionary process as the only way to overcome underdevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternativism has had an important place in Latin America, in dialogue and conflicts with other traditions in the field of communication. I review these links here, I propose some possible ways of thinking about the alternative today and I raise some current problems and debates. Problems related to communication reform processes, changes in technological and political contexts, debates in the social sciences and transformations in the professional field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research addresses the editorial practices in terms of visibility carried out by Latin American scientific journals and their influential factors. The applied technique of data collection was surveyed. The sample was composed by journals classified in Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR), all of them associated to five subject categories in the Latin American context: Philosophy, Theology, Law, Political Science and Psychology. The main finding was that Web 2.0 tools are underused by the analyzed journals, we could infer that the positioning of a journal is not directly related with the usage of this kind of technological tools. From the results obtained, it is suggested, as a future research line, the identification of other factors that positively affect the visibility of the journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the change of perspectives and narratives about national borders, the circulation of people and the political definitions of the limits of the National State in the social sciences since the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, to the most recent outcomes of the international geopolitics. The place occupied by the transnational perspective of migration is questioned, inquiring its role in the formation of critical anthropological reflections that, in the last two decades, have allowed a re-oxygenation of the classical categories of analysis in the social sciences. The discussion also sediments the questioning about the possible outcomes of this anthropological reflection in a context of profound international political changes regarding human mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article approaches the historical development of the field of migratory studies in Argentina and makes a review of the academic production around the so - called "migratory policies." The systematization of these studies, historically placed on migration policies, aims to highlight some of the most significant contributions of the research during the last 30 years, to understand or explain various aspects and dimensions of the Argentinean migration policy. To achieve this, texts were selected that derived from empirical research that explicitly assume the migratory policies as the object of study, or whose themes and research problems adopt as a framework for discussion the policies and practices aimed at regulating migration and mobility in Argentina. The organization and presentation of these selected texts consider issues related to the interests and thematic concerns, disciplinary and analytical approaches, distinct periods, scales of analysis and sources of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 40 years, investigations have shown the discipline of International Relations to reproduce the American influence on its methods, paradigms, and institutional dynamics. This article explores the case for the Latin American community, based on the survey data from the Teaching, Research, and International Politics project (TRIP) 2014 developed by the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations of the College of William and Mary, Virginia (USA). TRIP evaluated International Relations communities in 32 countries around the world. The article aims to answer two main questions: (i) is American influence still dominant over epistemological, methodological, paradigmatic, and institutional representative terms in Latin American International Relations communities, as has been considered in the past? (ii) Is there in the region any contestation to this supposed influence? Primarily, the present article shows an affirmative answer for the first issue. Therefore, and most importantly, the data analysis shows upcoming local pressures rooted in American influence, especially on its epistemic and paradigmatic terms. The data strengthens the miscegenation tendency on its epistemological and paradigmatic aspects, which underlines a lack of consensus over the structure of American dominance over the discipline of International Relations in Latin America, especially if one observes the most numerous and structured group in the region: the Brazilian International Relations community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three perspectives of Library and Information Science (LIS) are discussed: The first one is about the increasingly nearness between the point of view of the librarian and of the user about their information needs and information-seeking strategies; the second perspective points out on the Latin American position regarding more developed countries; the third one, states LIS needs to permanently ask itself about its ontological and epistemological foundations. The perspectives are examined taking into account its global aspects, because of the characteristics of the dynamics of the relations between individuals and societies, as that is what the current context requires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a systematic approach to the intellectual Latin American field in the third quarter of the 20th century, that is in the years that anticipate the advent of neo-liberalism. The study offers a historical analysis of the concept of development, as well as an exploration of the economic and cultural trends that contributed to the installment of this concept. Finally, the article focuses on outstanding features of the intellectual practices during the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the central role of cultural distances in social sciences, literature is surprisingly scarce in quantitatively measuring and graphically representing this concept in Latin America. This study addresses this issue calculating a cultural distance index using the nine cultural dimensions measured by House et al. (2004) for ten Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela. Also, this study graphically presents the cultural distances calculated. The relevance of this study is the ability to incorporate cultural indicators that allow comparing the current situation and prospects in Latin America. In order to illustrate the implications of this study, the case of cultural distances of Mexico with other nine Latin American countries is analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows that, despite the importance of the Soviet model in the Latin American imaginary, the latter's relations with Moscow during the Cold War have not been a topic of frequent research. The sixties saw the rise of the first studies on the subject, which expanded in the early seventies, and again in the late eighties after a phase of "silence," but which were strongly impregnated by the typical prejudices of their context. Other than punctual interpretations, however, the end of the conflict has not stimulated the academic renovation that was expected, and an evaluation of the "state of the art" shows that, In the area of Soviet-Latin American ties, the social sciences are still In debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the methodological apparatus set forth by O. G. Oexle, in his mainly studies Oexle's works entitled L'historisme en débat: de Nietzsche à Kantorowicz, Krise des Historismus, Krise der Wirklichkeit, and Das Problem der Problemgeschichte. This paper emphasizes the development of Oexle's methodology, its theoretical implications and its applicability in the Latin American context. The consequences of this methodology for the social and natural sciences in contemporary academy remain of vital importance for this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The connection between Social Sciences and Public Policies is one of the most interesting aspects for those who study how to transfer the empirical evidence of government decision making which benefits a certain population sector. In this context, language and communication channels between researchers and decision makers are key issues to generate a significant approach. In this research paper, we reflect on this given topic, taking into account the relationship between science and public policy, regarding the Colombian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay provides a model to analyze the development of political science in Latin America along the last sixty years. It identifies some of the theoretical disciplines, such as law and sociology, which set it in motion at the beginning, but at the same time they hindered its development as an independent science until recent decades in which political approaches predominate. Likewise, this essay shows the structural conditions of its development through the illustration of several variables, such as the proliferation of academic programs, political science scholar associations and academic production in journals, in order to evaluate the degree of institutionalization of political science in Latin America thus far. It concludes that political science in Latin America has accomplished its autonomy as an independent science, but it shows great diversity across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over a decade, the use of consumer decision seeking the accomplishment of political or ethical goals has been extensively debated by international social sciences. Confronting social capital decline and political demobilization theories, the acknowledgement of political consumerism as a novel and rising mode of non-conventional individual participation in politics has helped to redefine the terms of discussion on civic engagement while also bridging the gap between citizenship and the traditional public sphere of politics, on one side, and consumption and the private sphere of market agents, on the other. Yet, such debate has hardly begun for Latin America, not to speak of pursuing an empirical discussion. This article reviews empirical evidence about the politicization of the relationships between consumers and business substantiated upon the adoption of politically motivated purchases or boycotts of brands and products based on social and environmental values or policy preferences. Research is grounded on representative sample surveys conducted in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Results indicate that political consumerism is a fairly stable phenomenon and it enlarges (rather than redefines) the repertoires of political action in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intention of this work is to interpret four alternative movements for rethinking the social sciences based on a liberating episteme from the South. In addition to re-thinking, this article also deals with recreating the other Latin American scientific socio-political logos from the viewpoint of intercultural philosophy. To achieve these goals, the alternatives are conceived as i) an epistemic project that allows for complex research and the trans-disciplinary training of researchers; ii) an ethical project that permits establishing public coexistence values and rights to peace between men and nature; iii) a political project that allows for developing intercultural states in favor of plurality for civic identities; and finally iv) an economic project based on criticism of techno-scientific consumerist production, that, at the same time, justifies the development of an economy of necessary goods. These days, when models of Cartesian rationality are in crisis, it is in Latin America where alternative praxes make it possible to discover those insurgent origins of emancipation in the face of decolonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the pattern of scientific knowledge implies the epistemological platform of the western civilization model associated with the capitalist system, closely linked to situations of injustice against which social movements arise and act, what characteristics does wisdom assume consubstantiated with the interests in transforming society associated with those movements? The purpose of this essay is to describe some of the particularities that this “knowledge in movement” assumes. At the same time, the essay will try to sketch the tensions among these and determine certain conditionings of scientific knowledge, expressed in the canons that regulate social science publications. “Knowledge in movement” has two dimensions: one denounces and the other contributes epistemological “novelty.” They originate within and outside of academe from multiple patterns and become legitimate in the same transformation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the trajectory of science and technology (S&T) in Latin America is described. This trajectory has been divided into two stages. One corresponds to the creation of this field of study between the 1960s and the 1980s, during which the political focus on problems of development related to science and technology was most fruitful. Other lines of research were linked to internalist historical studies and, toward the end of the 1980s, to sociological and anthropological studies with a constructivist focus. The second stage begins in the 1990s and continues to the present. It covers, in large part, work on the economics of technological change and studies on policies and the implementation of technology, and, to a lesser extent, the sociology and history of technology. In addition to analyzing the focuses within these large areas of work on S&T, this article points out the absences and thematic gaps in this field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1960s, Latin American social sciences identified themselves with national projects and explicitly, with utopias such as development and revolution. At present, they have to deal with more complex and interrelated societies, and in some form, the principal topic is the phenomenon of globalization. In this new context, visions derived from theoretical models are no longer related, that is, they no longer make prophecies but rather, suggest possible scenes. This article analyzes the impact of globalization on Latin American social sciences. It highlights the importance of debate and of diverse interpretations in constructing a new social reality. Likewise, it values the contribution of the social sciences to overcoming the dilemma formed by the unrestricted defense of economic globalization and the total rejection of global transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper alludes to the role played by Raúl Prebisch and the CEPAL in the process of production and institutionalization of a certain social and critical knowledge in the 50's in Latin America. From a bourdian perspective our aim is to go beyond biographical constructions that have been written about Prebisch's work and settle them down to the ideas developed by CEPAL. Because of that, we will try to analyze, on one hand, Prebisch's theoretical and strategic position in the field of social sciences at that time and to explain, on the other hand, CEPAL's blurred image due to the crisis of the substitute industrialization model, Prebisch's movement to the UNCTAD and the Dependent Economy Model debate in Latin America academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text analyses how Statistics has been applied in sociological research during the last four decades, and its links to the main social and political processes. From the informed experience of the author, it distinguishes three moments: height, exile, resurgence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The constitution of a Global Anthropology project is taking place in several studies throughout the world. It has especially been dealt by anthropological schools that are not in the so called "great centers"; those refer to Anthropology produced in the USA, England and France. This study analyzes the limits and possibilities of constitution of an anthropological global network, especially in the Latin American context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an overview of the development of sociology from the 1970s until present days. The main argument is that the originality of the foundational project of the sociology in Central America was its regional perspective, which first became weak and later almost completely disappeared. The challenge now is about how to strengthen the discipline from this perspective but grounded in the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to trace, reconstruct and analyze the files of the Intelligence Services regarding the production of Latin-American social sciences in the period 1976-1983. The object "Latin America" is to the services of intelligence a priori associated with and connoting "communist", "revolutionary" or "subversive". All the above led to an exhaustive work of exegesis and research on the production of Latin-American Social Sciences describing a double process: introducing professionalism in politics and political radicalization. The documents found in the Archive of the former Direction of Intelligence of the Police of the Province of Buenos Aires [DIPBA] - (containing reports of other services of intelligence) allow to infer the importance and the degree of "danger" that the dictatorships attributed to this production. This research will analyze reports issued by Intelligence Offices on popular music, essays and, particularly, classic works produced by Latin American Social Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses, first, the strong institutionalization process in sociology as a discipline in Latin America in recent decades, with an increasing number of undergraduate courses, as well as a large and successful development of high-level training within MSc and PhD graduate programmes. This community has a large and diversified production, published mainly in regional journals. Second, the author uses the example of sociology of work, her own field of research, to show how Latin American sociological production can and should make an important contribution to the mainstream debate in the area. Of this large body of work produced by sociologists of work in the region, the article discusses two examples: research on gender and work in Latin America, and more recent research on flexible production, showing how the findings and analysis of Latin American sociology of work are important in making concepts richer and more complex and in understanding many recent phenomena in developed countries. Finally, the author outlines some of the challenges that remain to bring this large body of work to the attention of the international sociological community. How to integrate and to tap this large body of knowledge of great quality and interest is one of the challenges faced by the International Sociological Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]