The research on modernity in Latin America: Lineages and dilemmas

Abstract

Conventional research on modernity has interpreted Latin American experiences as lagging behind, as expressions of an ‘incomplete’ or failed modernity, since they do not meet the conditions of a ‘complete’ achievement of modernity as described by theories developed within European and, later, US academia. Since the emergence of dependency theory in the 1960s, and more emphatically since the 1990s, after the dissemination of postcolonial and decolonial theories in the region, this still dominant interpretation has been challenged by new approaches which convincingly underline the interdependent development of global modernity. This article reconstructs part of these debates and identifies a number of different lineages in current research on modernity in Latin America: a first lineage which describes modernization in Latin America as a mimicry of European/Western modernity; a second lineage which characterizes modernity as a global transformation activated by the colonial annexation of the Americas into capital accumulation; and an intermediary lineage which also recognizes the importance of colonialism in shaping global modernity, but at the same time underlines the European origin of modern emancipatory imaginaries.

Southern theories in Northern circulation: analyzing the translation of Latin American dependency theories into German

“…Despite this blow to the circulation of dependency theories, there is currently a growing return to its paradigmatic postulates (Weissenbacher 2015;Pimmer 2018). In addition, the Latin American decolonial perspective, heir to the debate on dependency, is currently experiencing increasing transregional circulation (Costa 2019). I am convinced that analyzing the circulation of knowledge from the South to the North, as suggested here, will help to identify factors that contribute to the recognition of Southern Theories.…”

Researchers in Argentina: Scientific vocation, publication strategies and time‐management tactics

“…Publication in scientific peer-reviewed journals is the way to reach a broader audience and have a higher impact. Those international standards make national journals less competitive (Beigel, 2014;Costa 2019). Nevertheless, the motivation of interacting with peers at conferences can partly explain why researchers attend those events so frequently.…”

Key Texts for Latin American Sociology

“…Its regional experience and intellectual exchange is as old as Independence, two centuries already. Costa has argued that this region is not a homogeneous referential unit, but indeed a strongly compelling one (Costa, 2018). With similar colonial structures, the independence revolutions were part of an insurrection that extended beyond national frontiers.…”