Aldo Mascareño

Obstacles and Perspectives of Latin American Sociology: Normative Universalism and Functional Differentiation

Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Aufsatz versucht die Erkenntnisblockaden der lateinamerikanischen Soziologie, die die Auffassung der Moderne Lateinamerikas in den 19. und 20. Jahrhunderten geprägt haben, zu beschreiben. Drei Erkenntnisblockaden - struktureller, normativer und methodologischer Art - werden identifiziert und als wesentliche Elemente eines konstruierten Vorbildes der lateinamerikanischen Moderne verstanden. Das Werk klassischer lateinamerikanischer Soziologen wie Gino Germani, Fernando H. Cardoso und Enzo Faletto wird analysiert und als Grundlage einer soziologischen Beschreibung Lateinamerikas als ein regionaler, partikulärer Weg innerhalb der modernen Weltgesellschaft konzipiert. Mittels einer Kombination systemtheoretischer Soziologie und kosmopolitischer Gesellschaftstheorie entfalten wir eine alternative Perspektive, die darauf gerichtet ist, das Universelle (Weltgesellschaft) und das Partikuläre (Lateinamerika) der lateinamerikanischen Moderne zu erfassen.

Sociología de la intervención: orientación sistémica contextual

Resumen es: La diferenciacion funcional de la sociedad moderna indica la autonomia y clausura operativa de sistemas sociales. Esta condicion es compensada por mecani...

Sociología de la solidaridad. La diferenciación de un sistema global de cooperación

La diferenciacion funcional es un proceso de caracter contingente. Esto supone que constelaciones sistemicas existentes pueden descomponerse o que otras nuevas pueden surgir. Un sistema de la cooperacion parece haber alcanzado un umbral de emergencia en el siglo XX, aunque no autopoiesis. Su funcion es la transformacion de la exclusion en inclusion a traves de distintas organizaciones acopladas al sistema, que operan sobre la base del medio de comunicacion simbolicamente generalizado colaboracion. La solidaridad opera como formula de contingencia del sistema, lo que posibilita el desarrollo creciente de densos acoplamientos estructurales.

On the reflexivity of crises Lessons from critical theory and systems theory

The main aim of this article is to offer a sociological concept of crisis that, defined as the expected yet non-lineal outcome of the internal dynamics of modern societies, builds on the synergies between critical theory and systems theory. It contends that, notwithstanding important differences, both traditions concur in addressing crises as a form of self-reproduction of social systems as much as a form of engagement with the complexities and effects of such processes of reproduction. In order to make our comparison exhaustive, this article explores critical and systems theories’ notions of crisis at three levels: (1) their conceptual delimitation of crises; (2) their methodological proposals to empirically observe crises; and (3) their normative attempts to contribute to their resolution. As crises remain a distinctive structural feature of the social world and a rich source of knowledge about it, reflexivity must be seen as a crucial form of engagement with the negative expressions of social life itself.

Book Review Symposium

My conclusion after reading Rodrigo Cordero’s book is that the original core of the German critical theory is alive and healthy. Within the German tradition, trademark critical theory remains relevant and productive thanks to theoretical innovations of such authors as Jürgen Habermas, Hauke Brunkhorst, Axel Honneth and Hartmut Rosa. Cordero’s proposal to understand the relationship between crisis and critique in modern society is inscribed in this very tradition. It revitalizes it by bringing together Marx, Hegel and Adorno (Chapters 1 and 2), Habermas and Koselleck (Chapters 3 and 4), Arendt and Foucault (Chapters 5 and 6) into a negative critical theory. Cordero’s book carries a rather strong philosophical assumption. It is explicitly committed ‘to a non-essentialist mode of social theorizing’ and, therefore, ‘to a critically open attitude toward the persistence of the negative in social life’ (p. 9). Because of the ‘negative’, we are invited to think in terms of relations rather than components, in fragility rather than solidity, in non-closure rather than essential unity. The negative becomes evident in times of crisis when things actually break and the fragility of foundations becomes visible, and also in the practice of critique when fissures in social institutions come to light. In my view, what Cordero achieves is a highly original postfoundational and postrational critical theory that is particularly suited to the contingency and differentiation of modern society. By revisiting Marx, Cordero recovers the sociological concept of crisis as evidence of the contingency of foundations. Crises reveal the fragility of social institutions and norms and, at the same time, motivate society towards self-reflection (pp. 20–21). The concept of diremption (Entzweiung, in Hegel’s language) plays a central role (pp. 41– 43), for reflection and critique must begin by placing attention on the fissures and incompleteness of institutions, and not by imposing a principle on reality. Therefore, critique cannot be conceived of as a technique for healing, but instead as a form of resisting any attempt of ‘closing’ the social world – of attributing it a definite, natural form. In terms of Luhmann’s theory of evolution (2012), critique becomes a mechanism of variation; a form of defying affirmative identities, thereby reinforcing the potential of negativity in social communication. 722899 SOC0010.1177/0038038517722899SociologyBook Review Symposium book-review2017

Managing the 1920s’ Chilean educational crisis: A historical view combined with machine learning

In the first decades of the 20th century, political actors diagnosed the incubation of a crisis in the Chilean schooling process. Low rates of enrollment, literacy, and attendance, inefficiency in the use of resources, poverty, and a reduced number of schools were the main factors explaining the crisis. As a response, the Law on Compulsory Primary Education, considering mandatory for children between 6 and 14 years old to attend any school for at least four years, was passed in 1920. Using data from Censuses of the Republic of Chile from 1920 and 1930, reports of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education, and the Statistical Yearbooks between 1895 and 1930, we apply machine learning techniques (clustering and decision trees) to assess the impact of this law on the Chilean schooling process between 1920 and 1930. We conclude that the law had a positive impact on the schooling indicators in this period. Even though it did not overcome the differences between urban and rural zones, it brought about a general improvement of the schooling process and a more efficient use of resources and infrastructure in both big urban centers and small-urban and rural zones, thereby managing the so-called crisis of the Republic.

Esse sequitur operari, o el nuevo giro de la teoría sociológica contemporánea: Bourdieu, Archer, Luhmann

The article argues that in contemporary sociological theory it is possible to recognize a set of operational theories for which the generative mechanism of the social lies at the center of their theoretical architecture. For these theories, the concept of operation plays a pivotal role in describing the emergence of society, while the concept of structure functions as a limitative, reflexive device that informs the operation about the contingent possibilities of social dynamics. The article contends that Pierre Bourdieu’s logic of practice, Margaret Archer’s temporal dislocation between agency and structure as well as the intermediary role of interaction, and Niklas Luhmann’s concept of communication as a threefold selection event represent alternative options in operatively explaining social emergence. Conclusions examine the features of operational theories with a view to drawing the theoretical consequences for basic concepts of social sciences such as time, space, the distinction micro/macro, and the position of norms in sociological theorizing.

La emergencia de redes clientelares en América Latina: Una perspectiva teórica

Las redes clientelares han sido objeto de investigacion recurrente en America Latina particularmente en las ultimas tres decadas. Esta investigacion ha enfatizado en sus modalidades de funcionamiento y consecuencias para el contexto democratico. No obstante, menos atencion se ha puesto en perfilar las condiciones de emergencia de las redes clientelares en America Latina y la contribucion que la teoria sociologica contemporanea puede hacer para ampliar el espectro analitico del campo. Por medio del recurso a distintas teorias sociologicas actuales (especialmente teoria de sistemas y sociologia relacional) y a fuentes de investigacion empirica sobre redes clientelares, en este articulo argumentamos que ellas emergen en America Latina en un contexto operativo de crisis de modernizacion que afecta fuertemente el modus vivendi personal. Esta crisis produce un contexto simbolico de deflacion de compromisos valoricos que las redes clientelares solo pueden enfrentar con efectos relacionales limitados, los que, adicionalmente, impactan negativamente en la generalizacion de la confianza social.

Poul F. Kjaer (2014). Constitutionalism in the Global Realm

Algo ha cambiado en el debate constitucional especialmente en la ultima decada. De ser un tema asociado unicamente a las posibilidades y limites de la democracia del Estado-nacion paso a ser uno con connotaciones globales, o al menos transnacionales. Varios nuevos analisis cuyos temas van desde las pretensiones mas clasicas fundadas en el derecho internacional hasta la constitucionalizacion de la Organizacion Mundial del Comercio (OMC), de los regimenes privados de

Redes Informales e Instituciones Democráticas en América Latina

El articulo propone tres tipos de relacion entre instituciones procedimentales basadas en derechos fundamentales y redes informales en America Latina: una relacion de integracion que inicialmente apoya los objetivos institucionales pero que los debilita en el largo plazo; una relacion de superposicion que interviene y utiliza parasitariamente las instituciones procedimentales; y una relacion de desacoplamiento que supone un desplazamiento de instituciones procedimentales de los espacios sociales controlados por redes informales. Metodologicamente, ilustramos este argumento con casos extraidos de la literatura y reinterpretados a la luz de las propuestas conceptuales presentes en el articulo. La conclusion central es que las redes informales generan una fuerte motivacion para la accion contraria al tipo de orden social que promueven los derechos fundamentales.