Why we need a non-eurocentric history of sociology

A reply to Carlos Sell

Visualizações: 35

Authors

  • João Marcelo Ehlert Maia Fundação Getúlio Vargas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.1126

Keywords:

sociological theory, Eurocentrism, classics of sociology, postcolonial sociology, non-Eurocentric history of sociology

Abstract

In this article, the author reviews the arguments and proposals presented by Carlos Sell in “The destruction of the classics of Sociology: Democratization or homogenization?” in this volume of RBS, critically analyzing them and offering other perspectives and solutions. The author argues that a non-Eurocentric history of sociology is the best strategy to build a global sociology that recognizes the diversity of the social world.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

João Marcelo Ehlert Maia, Fundação Getúlio Vargas

Doctor in Sociology (IUPERJ), associate professor at FGV CPDOC (Escola de Ciências Sociais)

References

Alatas, Syed Farid. (2022). Knowledge hegemonies and autonomous knowledge. Third World Quarterly, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2022.2124155

Alatas, Syed Farid; Sinha, Vineeta. (2001). Teaching classical sociological theory in Singapore: The context of Eurocentrism. Teaching Sociology, 29(3), 316-331. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1319190

Ballestrin, Luciana. (2013). América Latina e o giro decolonial. Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política, (11), 89-117. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-33522013000200004 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-33522013000200004

Bernardino-Costa, Joaze, & Grosfoguel, Ramon. (2016). Decolonialidade e perspectiva negra. Sociedade e Estado, 31(1), 15-24. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-69922016000100002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-69922016000100002

Bhambra, Gurminder K. (2014). Connected sociologies. Bloomsbury. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472544377

Brasil Jr, Antonio, & Carvalho, Lucas. (2020). Por dentro das ciências humanas: um mapeamento semântico da área via base SciELO-Brasil (2002-2019). Revista de Humanidades Digitales, 5, 149-183. https://doi.org/10.5944/rhd.vol.5.2020.27627 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5944/rhd.vol.5.2020.27687

Caillé, Alain, & Vandenberghe, Frédéric. (2021). Por uma nova sociologia clássica: re-unindo teoria social, filosofia moral e os studies. Editora Vozes.

Camic, Charles. (2014). Periphery toward center and back: Scholarship on the history of sociology 1945-2012, In: R. E. Backhouse, & P. Fontaine. A Historiography of the Modern Social Sciences. (99-143). Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139794817.004

Campos, Luis Augusto, & Szwako, José. (2020). Biblioteca Bourdieusiana ou como as ciências sociais brasileiras vêm se apropriando de Pierre Bourdieu (1999-2018). BIB. Revista Brasileira de Informação Bibliográfica em Ciências Sociais, (91), 1-25.

Consolim, Márcia. (2008). Gabriel Tarde e as ciências sociais francesas: afinidades eletivas. Mana, 14, 269-298. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-93132008000200001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-93132008000200001

Connell, Raewyn. (2007). Southern Theory: the global dynamics of knowledge production in the social sciences. Polity Press.

Costa, Sérgio. (2019). Desigualdade, diferença, articulação. Cadernos CRH, 32(85), 33-45. https://doi.org/10.9771/ccrh.v32i85.27771 DOI: https://doi.org/10.9771/ccrh.v32i85.27771

Da Silva, Denise Ferreira. (2018). Hacking the subject: Black feminism and refusal beyond the limits of critique. PhiloSOPHIA, 8(1), 19-41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/phi.2018.0001

Dayé, Christian. (2018). A systematic view on the use of history for current debates in Sociology, and on the potential and problems of a historical epistemology of society. American Sociologist, 49, 520-547. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-018-9385-1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-018-9385-1

Domingues, José Maurício. (2011), Teoria crítica e (semi)periferia. Editora UFMG.

Domingues, Jose Maurício. (2009). Global Modernization, `coloniality' and a critical sociology for contemporary Latin America. Theory Culture & Society, 26(1), 112-133. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276408099018

Dufoix, Stéphane. (2022). A larger grain of sense. Making early non-Western sociological thought visible. Sociedade e Estado, 37(3), 861-884. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202237030005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202237030005

Dufoix, Stéphane. (2018). Coming to terms with Western social science: Three Historical Lessons from Asia. Journal of Global Studies, (5), 49-71. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/230556977.pdf

Dutra, Roberto (2021). Por uma Sociologia sistêmica pós-colonial da América Latina. Dados, 64 (1), 1-35, e20190153. https://doi.org/10.1590/dados.2021.64.1.229 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/dados.2021.64.1.229

Dutra, Roberto. (2020). Por uma sociologia sistêmica pós-colonial das diferenças no interior da sociedade mundial moderna. Sociedade e Estado, 35(01), 259–285. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202035010011 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202035010011

Go, Julian. (2016). Globalizing sociology, turning South. Perspectival realism and the Southern standpoint. Sociologica, (2). https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.2383/85279

Go, Julian. (2013). For a postcolonial sociology. Theory and Society, 42, 25-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-012-9184-6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-012-9184-6

Hamlin, Cynthia L., Weiss, Raquel A., & Brito, Simone M. (2022). Por uma sociologia polifônica: introduzindo vozes femininas no cânone sociológico. Sociologias, 24(61), 26-59. https://doi.org/10.1590/18070337-125407-PT DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/18070337-125407-PT

Heilbron, Johan, & Sapiro, Gisèle. (2008). Outline for a sociology of translation: Current issues and future prospects. In: M. Wolf & A. Fukari (eds.). Constructing a sociology of translation (93-107). John Benjamins. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.74.07hei

Huebner, Daniel R. (2019). Becoming Mead: The social process of academic knowledge. University of Chicago Press.

Korom, Philipp. (2020). The prestige elite in Sociology: Toward a collective biography of the most cited scholars (1970-2010). The Sociological Quarterly, 61(1), 128-163. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2019.1581037 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2019.1581037

Maia, João Marcelo E. (2024). Searching for common grounds in world sociology: an historiographical perspective from the Global South. In É. Macé (org). An Invitation to Non-Hegemonic World Sociology (127-141). Rowman & Littlefield.

Maia, João Marcelo E. (2023). Ensinando a partir do Sul: novos diálogos entre a história da sociologia e a teoria sociológica. Revista Brasileira de Sociologia, 11(27), 5-22. https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.916 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.916

Maia, João Marcelo E. (2017a) História da sociologia como campo de pesquisa e algumas tendências recentes do pensamento social brasileiro. História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos, 24(1), 111-128. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-59702017000100003 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/s0104-59702017000100003

Maia, João Marcelo E. (2017b). Muito além do cânone: como introduzir a Sociologia na graduação em Ciências Sociais. In: H. Bomeny & C. B. Martins. (orgs.), Ensino de Sociologia na graduação: perspectivas e desafios. Vol. 1. (129-144). Anablume.

Maia, João Marcelo E. (2014). History of sociology and the quest for intellectual autonomy in the Global South: the cases of Alberto Guerreiro Ramos and Syed Hussein Alatas. Current Sociology, 62(7), 1097-1115. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392114534422 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392114534422

McLaughlin, Neil. (1998). How to become a forgotten intellectual: Intellectual movements and the rise and fall of Erich Fromm. Sociological Forum, 13(2), 215-246. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022189715949

Melcher, Cody R. (2024). Black Lives Matter and the Changing Sociological Canon: An Analysis of Syllabi from 2012 to 2023. Teaching Sociology, 52(4), 377-384. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X241262768

Merkel, Ian. (2022). Terms of exchange: Brazilian Intellectuals and the French Social Sciences. University of Chicago Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226819372.001.0001

Pérez, Amín. (2023). The reinvention of sociology. Into the trenches of fieldwork at the time of the Algerian Liberation War. In: D. Fassin & G. Steinmetz (orgs). The social sciences in the looking glass: studies in the production of knowledge. (147-171). Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478024095-006

Rosa, Marcelo C. (2022). Por uma ética da ontoformatividade: reflexões e proposições sobre a relação ontológica entre teoria e pesquisa na sociologia contemporânea do Sul Global. Sociedade e Estado, 37(3), 885-906. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202237030006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202237030006

Rosa, Marcelo C. (2014). Theories of the South: Limits and perspectives of an emergent movement in social sciences. Current Sociology, 62(6), 851-867. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392114522171 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392114522171

Sell, Carlos Eduardo. (2025). The destruction of the classics of sociology: democratization or homogenization? Revista Brasileira de Sociologia-RBS, 13, e-rbs.1092. https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.1092 DOI: https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.1092

Steinmetz, George. (2023). The colonial origins of modern social thought. French sociology and the overseas empire. Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691237435

Steinmetz, George (ed.) (2013). Sociology & Empire: The Imperial Entanglements of a Discipline. Durham and London: Duke University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822395409

Sorá, Gustavo, & Dujovne, Alejandro. (2018). Translating Western social and human sciences in Argentina: A comparative study of translations from French, English, German, Italian and Portuguese. In: J. Heilbron, G. Sorá, & T. Boncourt. The social and human sciences in global power relations (267-293). Palgrave MacMillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73299-2_10

Tavolaro, Sergio B. de F. (2021). Interpretações do Brasil e a temporalidade moderna: do sentimento de descompasso à crítica epistemológica. Sociedade e Estado, 36(3), 1059-1082. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202136030010 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1590/s0102-6992-202136030010

Turner, Stephen, & Factor, Regis A. (2014). Max Weber and the dispute over reason and value. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315823928

Downloads

Published

24-09-2025

How to Cite

Maia, J. M. E. (2025). Why we need a non-eurocentric history of sociology: A reply to Carlos Sell. Brazilian Journal of Sociology, 13. https://doi.org/10.20336/rbs.1126

Issue

Section

Artigos