Renato Ortiz

As ciências sociais e o inglês

The article analises the predominancy of the English language in the globalization context, particularly the implications related to the social sciences. It first makes a critical analysis of the literature elaborated by linguists concerning the expansion of the language in the contemporary world, focusing on the evolution of English from an international to a global language. It then discusses the supremacy of English both in natural and social sciences. The central argument is that such scientific practices are distinct, i.e., having English as lingua franca for natural sciences will make it impossible to have it doing so in the human sciences ambit. Assuming that the construction of the social object is achieved through the language, being it also referred to a specific historic-geographic context, the making of the social sciences must keep several languages in the process. The imposed prevalence of a language happens due to a power hierarchy in the linguistic metier, within which there has been an erroneous nearing between the ideas of universal and global.

As ciências sociais e a diversidade dos sotaques

This article takes a classic theme in the social sciences in Latin America: the relationship between domestic development (national) and external influences. It is, however, a recommencement that introduces the problem of the sociological thinking in the context of the globalization of culture. In this sense, to escape the dichotomy between national thinking and cosmopolitan thinking, the author proposes that the social sciences are a language with different accents. There is not, therefore, a universal core (thus identified with theories produced in Europe or the United States) and a regional knowledge, identified with the so-called peripheral countries.

Walter Benjamin e Paris: individualidade e trabalho intelectual

Este artigo e uma leitura do texto de Walter Benjamin Paris capital do seculo XIX. A partir do conjunto de anotacoes que Benjamin faz de diversos livros consultados, principalmente durante sua pesquisa na Bibliotheque Nationale, o autor pretende trabalhar a nocao de individuo vinculando-a a dois temas. Primeiro, a emergencia do flâneur como traducao do espirito de mobilidade que se inaugura com a modernidade. Para isso a discussao sobre a nocao de espaco, particularmente no que diz respeito a cidade de Paris, e importante. O flâneur surge assim como um individuo desenraizado que se locomove atraves do espaco urbano remodelado. Segundo, uma aproximacao entre o ato da flânerie e o trabalho intelectual. Considerando a flânerie como uma atividade intelectual o autor mostra como os temas do distanciamento e da construcao do objeto sao relevantes tanto para o flâneur-detetive quanto para a reflexao nas ciencias sociais.

Internationalization of the Social Sciences: a reflection

This article is a brief critical reflection on the issue of internationalization of Social Sciences, seen as a crucial factor for the circulation of ideas. It examines to what extent such process, which is not new but gets redefined in the context of globalization, impacts the intellectual work. The analysis is focused in particular aspects of the current debate: the criticism over Eurocentrism; the insufficiency in analysing power relations in the field of Social Sciences from the perspective of a “North/South” dichotomy; the presence of English as the language of world-modernity; the dominance of rationality emerging from the system for evaluating the intellectual work.

Octávio Ianni: a ironia apaixonada

a sua aparencia, a expressao afinidade eletiva algumas ve-zes nos induz ao erro. Ela nos da a falsa impressao de quea dimensao da eleicao prevalece sobre a afinidade, tornan-do-a fruto de uma escolha individual. Lida assim, o sujeito,na sua independencia, seria o senhor de sua propria vonta-de. Contudo, quando Goethe a utiliza como titulo de um de seus livros, suaintencao e outra: os personagens, encerrados numa pequena propriedadefora da cidade, isolados do mundo, experimentam uma situacao na qual arazao e suplantada por forcas incontrolaveis. Eles se perdem, desviam-se desuas rotas e planos originais, os subentendidos os envolvem e os impelemnuma direcao imprevisivel. Arrastados pela torrente dos fatos, suas subjeti-vidades transformam-se e se moldam a revelia de suas conviccoes. Afinida-de eletiva era um termo da Quimica pre-moderna, que descrevia o movi-mento e a atracao das particulas de substâncias diversas e contraditorias.Malgrado suas disparidades e incompatibilidades convergiam num mesmosentido. Minha relacao com Octavio tinha algo disso. Nossas diferencasgravitacionalmente nos impeliam para um ponto de fuga, o trabalho inte-lectual. Esse era um tema recorrente de nossas conversas, ele apagavamomentaneamente os contrastes diluindo nossas idiossincrasias. Ao esbo-car o retrato de alguem que partiu, este e o rosto que gostaria de gravar, elee um traco individual, modal a uma personalidade determinada, mas trans-

Cultura, política e cidadania

A questao que perpassa este estudo e saber o que entender por politica? Sem ter a ambicao de dar uma resposta definitiva, e possivel compreende-la como um tipo de atividade que se desenvolve no âmbito de um espaco especifico. O objetivo da Ciencia Politica e justamente o de desvendar a logica deste espaco, dando inteligibilidade as acoes dos individuos que nele atuam, assim como as instituicoes e aos interesses que lhes dao suporte.

Modernité mondiale et identités : Amérique latine: Cultures et communications

The author makes a radical examination of the idea of cultural identity, beginning by rejecting the reasoning of a culturalist school based on the three ideas of integration, territoriality and centrality. After questioning the contributions of Levi-Strauss and Marcel Mauss to this concept of identity, he adopts the « disenclavement » idea to reflect on the process of building national identities, which remain precarious, though, as globalization tends to bring out « deterritorialized identities » of unequal force, as they are too closely determined by power games and positions, which force them into various forms of negotiation.

Aluísio de Azevedo e o Japão: uma apreciação crítica

The article analyses the book Japan by Aluisio de Azevedo, who was Brazils vice-consul in Yokohama, between 1887 and 1889. It tries to insert the authors opinions and the fascination he seems to have for the Emperor in the complex context of japonization-process which ran throughout Japan at the end of the 80ies of the last century. Talking into account that the country of that time is immersed in a debate which opposes modernization to tradition inside the parameters of an exalted nationalism, the aim here is to investigate the fundaments of a perspective suggested by an author characterized by his brasility and by an idyllic perception of Japanese isolationism, a measure of purity in relation to Europe. The analysis emphasizes the oscillation between a look which tends to see the Orient as a homogeneous block contrasting with the Occident as well as the national question, which precisely is the assertion of a specificity.