Sociology, colonialism and social practices in Latin America

With the decline of Eurocentrism, sociology finds a special time to increase a profound criticism of its nature and importance in Latin America. This is the challenge we seek to answer with this paper, that the progress of post-colonial criticism is contributing to a reassessment of the stages of development of Sociology in Latin America and, consequently, for further information on the social movements and community practices. In this context, the review of sociology and social sciences enable us to witness the revaluation of urbans movements, the indigenous and feminist struggles or religious pluralism. Since the new questions put by the deconstruction criticism of Eurocentrism, it’s seems that the development of sociology took place under the historical tension between colonialism and anti-colonialism. Consequently, the sociological studies have known three distinct stages: one, the post-independence, another, the criticism of postcoloniality and third, still uncertain, which moves the sociology today between, on one hand, the attempts to recolonialize, from utilitarian and neo-liberal pressures of consumer society, and secondly, the anti-utilitarian struggles for decolonialization of knowledge and power and for a new collective praxis. At moment of post-independence, social thinking is more motivated by the idea of forming the national society. The second moment we call post-colonial criticism. Here, the advance of democratic struggles contributed to new intellectual meanings about the nature of Eurocentrism. Thus, the ideas of center and periphery open the discussions on coloniality not only of each national society but of the whole region. The third moment of sociology in Latin America is still vague and hesitates between the denial of the center-periphery relationship, as does neo-liberalism or, conversely, for recognition of its relevance in a new system of domination/liberation and more complex changes between center and margins.