The Politics of Academic Autonomy in Latin America (Public Intellectuals and the Sociology of Knowledge) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 140943186X ISBN 13: 9781409431862

Publisher: Routledge, 2013

Synopsis

Academic autonomy has been a dominant issue among Latin American social studies, given that the production of knowledge in the region has been mostly suspected for its lack of originality and the replication of Euro-American models. Politicization within the higher education system and recurrent military interventions in universities have been considered the main structural causes for this heteronomy and, thus, the main obstacles for 'scientific' achievements. This groundbreaking book analyses the struggle for academic autonomy taking into account the relevant differences between the itinerary of social and natural sciences, the connection of institutionalization and prestige-building, professionalization and engagement. From the perspective of the periphery, academic dependence is not merely a vertical bond that ties active producers and passive reproducers. Even though knowledge produced in peripheral communities has low rates of circulation within the international academic system, this doesn't imply that their production is - or always has been - the result of a massive import of foreign concepts and resources. This book intends to show that the main differences between mainstream academies and peripheral circuits are not precisely in the lack of indigenous thinking, but in the historical structure of academic autonomy, which changes according to a set of factors -mainly the role of the state in the higher education system. This historical structure explains the particular features of the process of professionalization in Latin American scientific fields.

About this title

About the Author:

Fernanda Beigel, Head Professor of Sociology and Director of the PhD Programme in Social Sciences at the National University of Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina). Associate Researcher at the National Council for Technical and Scientific Research (CONICET). Member of the International Sociological Association.

Review:

Here, available for the first time in English, is a novel account of the academic politics - in their national and international contexts - that carried Latin American social science through its expansion in the 1950s and, most strikingly, through the period of dictatorships. A must-read for all those interested in the history of this most dynamic region of social science.' Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley, USA'A very timely book now that in many parts of the world the academic culture is under stress and intellectual autonomy at risk. A perspective from periphery - and a large and rich one as Latin America - is what we need to get a critical eye on this matter. The book does its job with a wealth of data which are of great interests to scholars worldwide.'Marco Santoro, University of Bologna, Italy

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 140943186X
• ISBN 13: 9781409431862
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 290
• Editor: Beigel Fernanda