This article, adapted from the 19th Lewis A. Coser lecture delivered in 2024 at the American Sociological Association Meetings, presents three intertwined and sometimes overlapping arguments. First, I examine the limitations of the category “Global South” for studying Latin America. Second, I develop this critique by proposing a perspective distinct from both Northern theory and Global South approaches—what I call a “strabismic” standpoint. Third, I demonstrate this perspective in situ through the case of Argentine sociology, tracing the circulation of knowledge from an intermediate field of sociological production, where the center–periphery duality is but one among multiple relevant dimensions. Taken together, I aim to provincialize current constructions of Global South theory and highlight how in their effort to develop new critiques of the existing canon, scholars—given the dominance of English as a lingua franca—may inadvertently reproduce the very ethnocentrism they seek to challenge.
AbendGabriel. 2006. “Styles of Sociological Thought: Sociologies, Epistemologies, and the Mexican and U.S. Quests for Truth.” Sociological Theory24(1):1–41.
2.
AlabarcesPablo. 2012. “Culture and the Periphery: Nomadic Wanderings in the Argentine Sociology of Culture.” Current Sociology60(5):705–18.
3.
AlatasSyed Farid. 2003. “Academic Dependency and the Global Division of Labour in the Social Sciences.” Current Sociology51(6):599–613.
4.
AltamiranoCarlosSarloBeatriz. 1983. “Del lector.” Pp. 9–30 in Literatura/Sociedad. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Hachette.
AuyeroJavier. 2011. “Researching the Urban Margins: What Can the United States Learn from Latin America and Vice Versa?” City & Community10(4):431–36.
7.
BeigelFernanda. 2014. “Publishing from the Periphery: Structural Heterogeneity and Segmented Circuits: The Evaluation of Scientific Publications for Tenure in Argentina’s CONICET.” Current Sociology62(5):743–65.
8.
BeigelFernandaSalatinoHanan. 2015. “Circuits of Academic Dependency: The Mathew Effect and the Stratification of the Social Sciences in Argentina.” Journal of Latin American Studies47(3):506–29.
9.
BenzecryClaudio E.2002. “Beatriz Sarlo and Theories of Popular Culture.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies11(1):76–92.
10.
BenzecryClaudio E.2006a. “Curtain Rising, Baton Falling. The Politics of Musical Conducting in Contemporary Argentina.” Theory and Society35(4):445–79.
11.
BenzecryClaudio E.2006b. “With a Little Help from my Friends. Intellectual Sociability and Literary Value in Contemporary Buenos Aires.” Ethnography7(2):155–78.
12.
BenzecryClaudio E.2008. “Azul y Oro. The Many Social Lives of a Football Jersey.” Theory, Culture and Society25(1):49–77.
13.
BenzecryClaudio E.2011. The Opera Fanatic. Ethnography of an Obsession. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
14.
BenzecryClaudio E.2014. “An Opera House for the ‘Paris of South America.’ Pathways to High Culture Institutionalization.” Theory & Society43(2):169–96.
15.
BenzecryClaudio E.2022. The Perfect Fit: Creative Work in the Global Shoe Industry. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
16.
BenzecryClaudio E.HerediaMariana. 2017. “Sociology in Argentina.” Contemporary Sociology46(1):10–18.
17.
BhabhaHomi K.1994. The Location of Culture. London, UK: Routledge.
18.
BlancoAlejandroWilkisAriel. 2018. “The Internationalization of Sociology in Argentina 1985-2015: Geographies and Trends.” Pp. 215–41 in The Social and Human Sciences in Global Power Relations, edited by HeilbronJ.SoráG.BoncourtT.New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
19.
BleichmarDaniela (2012). Visible Empire. Colonial Botany and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment. University of Chicago Press.
20.
BleichmarDaniela. 2017. Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin. Yale University Press.
21.
BorgesJorge Luis. 1928. El Idioma de los Argentinos. Buenos Aires, Argentina: M. Gleizer.
22.
BorgesJorge Luis. 1939. “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote.” Sur56:7–16.
23.
BorgesJorge Luis. 1955. “El escritor argentino y la tradición.” Sur232: 1–8.
24.
BrunnerJosé Joaquín, ed. 1988. Cultura y modernización en América Latina. Santiago, Chile: FLACSO-Chile.
25.
BrunnerJosé Joaquín. 1992. América Latina: Cultura y modernidad. México City, México: Grijalbo.
CaldeiraTeresa. 2000. “Introduction: Anthropology with an Accent.” Pp. 1–19 in City of Walls. Crime, Segregation and Citizenship in Sao Paulo, by CaldeiraT.Berkeley: University of California Press.
28.
CalvoErnestoElverdínAna SofíaKesslerGabrielMurilloMaría Victoria. 2019. “Investigando las influencias internacionales en las ciencias sociales argentinas.” Revista Latinoamericana de Metodología de las Ciencias Sociales9(2):e055. doi:10.24215/18537863e055.
29.
CamposHaroldo de. 1983. “Da razão antropofágica.” Boletim Bibliográfico44(1):106–27.
30.
CardosoFernando HenriqueFalettoEnzo. 1969. Dependencia y desarrollo en América Latina. México City, México: Siglo XXI Editores.
31.
CarrilloHéctor. 2017. Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
32.
Carvalho FrancoMariaSylvia. 1976. Homens livres na ordem escravocrata. São Paulo, Brazil: Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros, Universidade de São Paulo.
33.
ConnellRaewyn. 2007. Southern Theory: The Global Dynamics of Knowledge in Social Science. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
34.
de AndradeOswald. 1928. “Manifesto Antropófago.” Revista de Antropofagia1(1):3–7.
35.
de ÍpolaEmilio (1979) “Populismo e ideología (A propósito de Ernesto Laclau: ‘Política e ideología en la teoría marxista’). Revista Mexicana de SociologíaVol. 41, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep.,), pp. 925–960
36.
de ÍpolaEmilio (1982) ”Crítica a la teoría althusserista sobre la ideología” en Ideología y discurso populista, México, Folios.
37.
de Subiría ZamperSergio. 2022. El debate modernidad y posmodernidad en América Latina. Un diálogo con sus artífices: Brunner, García Canclini y Martín-Barbero. Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes.
38.
DeleuzeGilles. 1969. The Logic of Sense. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
39.
DeleuzeGillesGuattariFélix. 1975. Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
40.
DerridaJacques. 1972. Dissemination. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
41.
DujovneAlejandro. 2016. “Campo editorial y traducción: valor y formación de valor de la traducción en las ciencias sociales y humanas en Argentina (1990-2011).” Desarrollo Económico56:443–68.
42.
DujovneAlejandro. 2024. “Soft Power and Translation in Spanish-Speaking Latin America.” Perspectives. Studies in Translation Theory and Practice33(1):82–101. doi:10.1080/0907676X.2024.2421045.
43.
EakinMarshall C.2004. “Does Latin America Have a Common History?”Vanderbilt Journal of Luso Hispanic Studies1(1):29–49.
44.
EcheverríaEsteban. 1837. El matadero. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Imprenta Argentina.
45.
FajardoMargarita. 2022. The World That Latin America Created: The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America in the Development Era. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
46.
FoucaultMichel. 1966. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York, NY: Pantheon Books.
47.
FoucaultMichel. 1994. “Prisons and Asylums in the Mechanism of Power.” Pp. 109–13 in Foucault Live: Collected Interviews, 1961-1984, edited by LotringerS.New York, NY: Semiotext(e).
48.
FrankAndré Gunder. 1967. Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.
49.
FurtadoCelso. 1966. Subdesenvolvimento e estagnação na América Latina. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Editora Civilização Brasileira.
50.
GarcíaLuciano. 2024. “To and From Latin America: Remarks about the History of Psychology in ‘Peripheries.’” Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology44(3):143–58.
51.
García CancliniNéstor. 1984. “¿De qué estamos hablando cuando hablamos de lo popular?Punto de Vista20:3–6.
52.
García CancliniNéstor, ed. 1987a. Políticas culturales en América Latina. México City, México: Grijalbo / UNESCO.
53.
García CancliniNéstor. 1987b. “Políticas culturales y crisis de desarrollo.” Pp. 15–36 in Políticas culturales en América Latina, edited by García CancliniN.México City, México: Grijalbo.
54.
García CancliniNéstor. 1989. Culturas híbridas: Estrategias para entrar y salir de la modernidad. México City, México: Grijalbo.
55.
GoJulian. 2016. Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
56.
GonzálezGuadalupeKesslerGabrielMurilloVictoria. 2024. “Campos Académicos más allá de la dicotomía centro-perfieria.” Revista Mexicana de Sociología86(1):9–41.
57.
GruzinskiSerge. 1990. La guerre des images de Christophe Colomb à Blade Runner (1492–2019). Paris: Fayard.
58.
GuptaVineet. 2025. “The Globalization of the Social Sciences? Revisiting Mosbah-Natanson and Gingras (2014).” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, IL, August 11.
59.
GutiérrezLeandroRomeroLuis Alberto. 1995. Sectores Populares, Cultura y Política: Buenos Aires en la Entreguerra. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Sudamericana.
60.
HanafiSari. 2011. “University Systems in the Arab East: Publish Globally and Perish Locally vs. Publish Locally and Perish Globally.” Current Sociology59(3):291–309.
61.
HeilbronJohan. 2010. “Structure and Dynamics of the World System of Science.” International Social Science Journal61(1):115–28.
62.
HeilbronJohan. 2014. “The Social Sciences as an Emerging Global Field.” Current Sociology62(5):685–703.
63.
JansenRobert S.2017. Revolutionizing Repertoires: The Rise of Populist Mobilization in Peru. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
64.
KrauseMonika. 2021. Model Cases: On Canonical Research Objects and Sites. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
65.
LaclauErnesto. 1977. Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory: Capitalism—Fascism—Populism. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press.
66.
LandiOscar. 1987. “Campo Cultural y Democratización en Argentina.” Pp. 99–114 in Políticas Culturales en América Latina, edited by García CancliniN.México City, México: Grijalbo.
67.
LapegnaPabloKuninJohana. 2022. “Cannibalizing the Northern Environmental Justice Perspective.” Perspectives43(2): 16–22.
68.
LyotardJean-François. 1988. The Postmodern Explained: Correspondence 1982-1985. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Martín-BarberoJesús. 1987. De los Medios a las Mediaciones: Comunicación, Cultura y Hegemonía. Barcelona, Argentina: Editorial Gustavo Gili.
71.
MassholderAlexia. 2011. “La llegada de Gramsci a la Argentina: una relectura sobre Héctor P.Agosti.” Revista Foro interno, anuario de teoría política. 11(1):45–67.
72.
MatoDaniel, ed. 1992. Transiciones culturales en América Latina. Caracas, Venezuela: CLACSO.
73.
MenjívarCecilia. 2023. “State Categories, Bureaucracies of Displacement, and Possibilities from the Margins.” American Sociological Review88(1):1–23.
74.
MonsiváisCarlos. 1987. Entrada libre: crónicas de la sociedad que se organiza. México: Ediciones Era.
75.
Mosbah-NatansonSebastienGingrasYves. 2014. “The Globalization of Social Sciences? Evidence from a Quantitative Analysis of 30 Years of Production, Collaboration and Citations in the Social Sciences (1980–2009).” Current Sociology62(5):626–46.
76.
MouliánTomásBrunnerJosé Joaquín, eds. 1986. Cultura y democracia en América Latina. Santiago, Chile: CENECA.
77.
MoyaJose C.2010. “Introduction: Latin America. The Limitations and Meaning of a Historical Category.” Pp. 1–24 in The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History, edited by MoyaJ. C.New York, NY: Routledge.
78.
NahónCeciliaRodríguezEnriquezSchorrCorina Y.2006. “El pensamiento latinoamericano en el campo del desarrollo del subdesarrollo: trayectoria, rupturas y continuidades.” Pp. 220–63 in Crítica y teoría en el pensamiento social latinoamericano, edited by BeigelF.Buenos Aires, Argentina: CLACSO.
79.
NavarroFernandoLillisTheresaDonahueTerryCurryMary JaneReyesNayibe ÁvilaGustafssonMartinZavalaViviana, et al. 2022. “Rethinking English as a Lingua Franca in Scientific-Academic Contexts: A Position Statement.” Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes3(1):143–53.
80.
OrtizRenato. 1988. Cultura brasileña e identidad nacional. São Paulo, Brazil: Brasiliense.
81.
PalmaGabriel. 1981. “Dependency: A Formal Theory of Underdevelopment or a Methodology for the Analysis of Concrete Situations of Underdevelopment?”World Development9(12):1105–24.
82.
PalominoPablo. 2019. “On the Disadvantages of ‘Global South’ for Latin American Studies.” Journal of World Philosophies4:22–39.
83.
PaltiElías José. 2014. ¿Las ideas fuera de lugar? Estudios y debates en torno a la historia politico intellectual latinoamericana. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Prometeo.
84.
PatelSujata. 2014. “Afterword: Doing Global Sociology: Issues, Problems and Challenges.” Current Sociology62(4):603–13.
85.
PatrigliaJuan PabloDelupiBaal. 2020. “Dos usos de Gramsci en la Argentina, los casos de José María Aricó y Horacio González.” e-l@tina. Revista electrónica de estudios latinoamericanos20(77):1–14.
86.
PiovaniJuan Ignacio. 2019 “Styles of Academic Production in the Argentine Social Sciences: Heterogeneity and Heterodoxy.” Serendipities. Journal for the Sociology and History of the Social Sciences4(1):27–48.
87.
PrattMary Louise. 1992. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. New York, NY: Routledge.
88.
PrietoAdolfo. 1996. Los Viajeros Ingleses y la Emergencia de la Literatura Argentina, 1820-1850. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Sudamericana.
89.
RamaAngel. 1980. “Argentina: crisis de una cultura sistemática.” Punto de Vista9:3–10.
90.
RibeiroGustavo Lins. 2014. “World Anthropologies: Anthropological Cosmopolitanisms and Cosmopolitics.” Annual Review of Anthropology43:483–98.
91.
RichardNelly. 1994. La insubordinación de los signos. Chile: Editorial Cuarto Propio.
92.
RodóJosé Enrique. 1900. ArielMontevideo, Uruguay: Imprenta Dornaleche y Reyes.
93.
RodriguezFermin. 2010. Un Desierto para la nación. La escritura del vacío. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Eterna Cadencia.
94.
Rodriguez MedinaLeandro, 2019. “Enacting Networks, Crossing Borders: On the Internationalization of the Social Sciences in Mexico.” Current Sociology67(5):705–22.
95.
SaittaSylvia. 2007. Hacia la revolución. Viajeros argentinos de izquierda. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Fondo de Cultura Económica.
96.
SantiagoSilvano. 1971. “O entre-lugar do discurso latinoamericano.” Pp. 9–26 in Uma literatura nos trópicos. Ensáios sobre a decadencia cultural. Sao Paulo, Brazil: Perspectiva.
97.
SarloBeatriz. 1985. El imperio de los sentimientos. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Catálogos.
98.
SarloBeatriz. 1988. Una modernidad periférica: Buenos Aires 1920 y 1930. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Nueva Visión.
99.
SarloBeatriz. 1991. La imaginación técnica. Sueños modernos de la cultura argentina. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Nueva Visión.
100.
SchwarzRoberto. 1973.“As idéias fora do lugar.” Estudos Cebrap3: 111–131.
101.
SedgwickEve Kosofsky. 1997. “Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading; or, You’re So Paranoid, You Probably Think This Essay Is about You.” Pp. 1–37 in Novel Gazing: Queer Readings in Fiction, edited by SedgwickE. K.Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
102.
StarSusan Leigh. 2010. “This Is Not a Boundary Object: Reflections on the Origin of a Concept.” Science, Technology, & Human Values35(5): 601–17
103.
StarSusan LeighGriesemerJames R. 1989. “Institutional Ecology, “Translations” and Boundary Objects”, Social Studies of Science19(3): 387–420.
104.
SunkelOsvaldoPazPedro. 1980. El subdesarrollo latinoamericano y la teoría del Desarrollo. México City, México: Siglo XXI.
105.
TrouillotMichel-Rolph. 2002. “North Atlantic Universals: Analytical Fictions, 1492-1945.” The South Atlantic Quarterly101(4):839–58.
106.
UriarteJavier. 2019. The Desertmakers. Travel, War, and the State in Latin America. New York, NY: Routledge.
107.
VelhoOtavio. 2016. “O que é pensar desde o Sul.” Sociologia & Antropologia6(3):781–95.
108.
ViñasDavid. 1975. Literatura Argentina y Realidad Política. Apogeo de la oligarquía. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Siglo Veinte.
109.
ViñasDavid. 1998. De Sarmiento a Dios. Viajeros Argentinos a Estados Unidos. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Editorial Sudamericana.
110.
YanXueweng. 2024. “Injustice to Grieve or Gaps to Close? Remaking the Case for Non-Western Sociologies and Insights from Chinese-Language Sources.” Paper presented at the Junior Theorist Symposium, Montreal, Canada, August 9.
111.
YanXueweng. 2025. “Making Trouble with Decolonial Sociology. Towards an Integrative Future for Non-Western and Western Sociologies.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, August 9.
