Between Science and Politics

Donald Pierson and the quest for a scientific sociology in Brazil

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4354745
AutoresM C Maio (0000-0002-5938-5705, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz), Thiago Da Costa Lopes (0000-0001-6111-2645, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz)
Ano2022
Volume24
Fascículo60
Páginas228-266
Data de publicação2022-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociologias (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1517-4522 • E-ISSN: 1807-0337
EditoraFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/18070337-110170en
OpenAlexW4312797824
SCIELO_PIDS1517-45222022000200228
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas25

This paper analyzes the political dimension embedded in the work of the American sociologist Donald Pierson in Brazil. A former student of Robert Park at the University of Chicago, Pierson played a major role in the institutionalization of the social sciences in Brazil from the 1930s through the 1950s. While Pierson's intellectual ambitions were centered on an academic agenda and he defended a strict division between science and politics, we argue that a proper historical understanding of his endeavor can only be achieved through an analysis of his underlying assumptions about the nature of both science and society - assumptions that were rooted in a reformist, liberal-democratic understanding of the world. To bring to light these values, we examine two key moments in Pierson's career: 1) his doctoral research on race relations in Bahia, done in the mid-1930s; 2) his efforts to promote the field of sociology in Brazil during the Good Neighbor Policy and World War II, when he was hired to teach at the São Paulo School of Sociology and Politics

Democracy · Dimension (graph theory · Institutionalisation · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Gender Studies · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Sociology and Education in Brazil