The Possibility of Launching a "New Theoretical Movement from Latin America
Hector Raul Solis-Gadea
University of Guadalajara, Mexico
Contemporary Latin American societies are facing deep crises —economic, political and cultural— which require multidimensional approaches for their explanation and interpretation. We need to describe the particularities of the current historical conjunctures of these societies, but in the context of a diagnosis of long-lasting structural problems such as the undermining of social order, the consequences of modernization and globalization, and the loss of a sense of effective social agency. Not only democracy is at risk, but also state sovereignty, security, economic viability, environmental sustainability and social stability.
Is there a theoretical tradition, originated in Latin America or elsewhere, from which to begin coping with this critical situation? What is the current state of theory in Mexico and Latin America? What is the usefulness of the predominant international theoretical frameworks for understanding Latin American countries?
“The new theoretical movement” of the eighties and nineties is a tradition that offers a set of unique analytical tools useful for examining the problems of contemporary Latin American societies. Giddens, Habermas, Touraine and Alexander, among others, built comprehensive frameworks capable of coming to terms with the multiple aspects of the basic processes related to the production of social order and change, integration and conflict, cultural shifts and social action.
This paper will attempt a diagnosis of some of these synthetic frameworks in terms of their usefulness for a rethinking of structural problems of Latin American societies. It will also evaluate the trajectory of social theory in Mexico during the last forty years. From modernization and CEPAL theories to neoliberalism and public management, from Dependency theory and Marxism to democratization theories. Finally, it will imagine some guidelines for a construction of a new theoretical movement in Latin America.