Soziale Systeme 15 (2009), Heft 1, S. 73-97 © Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart Aldo Mascareño/Daniel Chernilo 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 Erkenntnisblo- ckaden - 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 sys- temtheoretischer 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. The problem of modernity is constitutive of sociology worldwide, and Latin American sociology is no exception to this trend. In fact, it has handled its rela- tionship to modernity with ambivalence. On the one hand, although its ref- erences to a certain >Latin American< unity have been much more important than its mentions to particular national traditions, it has found it difficult to get away from an idea of society as equated with the nation-state and from identity conceptions understood as an unchangeable cultural ethos. On the other hand, Latin American sociology has adopted the most abstract and gen- eral sociological theories available at different junctures, which of course were created in, and thought for, historical times and social contexts that are not those of the subcontinent itself. In other words, the very regional condition of Latin American sociology has made it aware of the universalistic vocation that lies at the core of the sociological canon. But it is equally noticeable that significant parts of it advance or even reproduce a highly particularistic view in which Latin American modernity is little else than an incomplete version of its European counterpart. We speak here of epistemological obstacles of Latin American sociology to char- acterize this particular crossroad. A term first introduced by Gaston Bachelard, This article was possible thanks to financial support by the Chilean Council for Science and Technology (Grants 1070826 and 1080213). The authors should like to thank Sérgio Costa and anonymous reviewers of Soziale Systeme for their comments and bibliographic references. Unauthenticated Download Date | 7/12/16 10:00 PM