This is the long overdue, second edition of Joseph A. Kahl's masterful Modernization, Exploitation, and Dependency in Latin America. In the book, Kahl describes, examines and introduces the life and work of three important figures in the development of comparative politics and political sociology: Gino Germani (Argentina), Pablo Gonzales Casanova (Mexico) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil). As Peter B. Evans points out in his splendid introduction, subsequent developments in comparative scholarship, as exemplified in the fate of modernization and dependency theory, have highlighted the influence of these three Latin Americans, first introduced to the North American community by this book. This is the text for students and practitioners of comparative political and socal science, interested in issues of modernization, development, and dependency.

This is the long overdue, second edition of Joseph A. Kahl's masterful Modernization, Exploitation, and Dependency in Latin America. In the book, Kahl describes, examines and introduces the life and work of three important figures in the development of comparative politics and political sociology: Gino Germani (Argentina), Pablo Gonzales Casanova (Mexico) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso (Brazil). As Peter B. Evans points out in his splendid introduction, subsequent developments in comparative scholarship, as exemplified in the fate of modernization and dependency theory, have highlighted the influence of these three Latin Americans, first introduced to the North American community by this book. This is the text for students and practitioners of comparative political and socal science, interested in issues of modernization, development, and dependency.

Scholarly discussion of the fate of the Third World has long been domi-nated by North American and European authors. Yet in recent years the writings of Third World social scientists have often been creative, and are worthy of more attention in the United States. This book makes the work of three outstanding Latin American sociologists readily available to the English-reading public: Gino Germani of Argentina (who has moved to Harvard University); Pablo Gonzalez Casanova of Mexico; and Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil. Their major writings are summarized, and then interpreted in the context of material from extensive interviews with the authors. In these interviews, the authors explain the events--personal, professional, and political--that have had major influence on their thought. Their views range from Germani's synthesis of orthodox European and American sociology, as adapted to his detailed empirical studies of the modernization of Argentina and other countries in this hemisphere, through Gonzalez Casanova's interpretation of the forces of exploitation, internal as well as external, that dominate the Mexican political system, to Cardoso's influential revisions of Marxist theory to deal with the basic situation of dependency that shapes the range of options open to the Latin American countries, especially Brazil. These "inside" views of the devel-opment process often sharply diverge from the dominant opinions among "outsiders." By understanding the differences, readers in the United States can gain direct insight into Latin American social reality, and can find ways of improving North American social science by bringing to the surface some unstated assumptions. One theme common to all three authors is their concern with issues that arise from policy debates: they focus on questions of practical import, rather than abstruse theoretical models. Yet they use sophisticated tools of social science that go beyond ideological rhetoric, and thus discipline political argument with scholarly rigor.

Key Texts for Latin American Sociology is the first book to curate and translate into English key texts from the Latin American Sociological canon. By bringing together texts from leading sociologists in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Bolivia, and Uruguay, the book provides comprehensive coverage of a wide range of issues in Latin American Sociology; drawing attention to embedded issues such as inequalities, identities, development, oppression and representation. This volume is the result of five years of collaboration between colleagues from 15 Latin American Countries, coordinated by Fernanda Beigel (CONICET, UNCuyo, Mendoza-Argentina) with the collaboration of the ′Key Texts Scientific Committee′, the Committee consists of the following members: Nadya Araujo Guimaraes (PPGS-USP, Brazil), Manuel Antonio Garretón (Universidad de Chile), Raquel Sosa Elizaga (CELA-UNAM, México), Jorge Rovira Mas (Universidad de Costa Rica), Breno Bringel (IESP-UERJ, Brazil), Joao Ehlert Maia (FGV, Brazil), Hebe Vessuri (IVIC, Venezuela), André Bothelo (UFRJ, Brazil), Carlos Ruiz Encina (Universidad de Chile), Eloisa Martin (UFRJ, Brazil), Sergio Miceli (PPGS- USP, Brazil), Alejandro Moreano (UCE, Ecuador), Elizabeth Jelin (CONICET-IDES, Argentina), Patricia Funes (UBA-CONICET, Argentina), Claudio Pinheiro (FGV, Brazil), Pablo de Marinis (UBA, CONICET, Argentina), Diego Pereyra (UBA, CONICET, Argentina), José Gandarilla Salgado (CIICH-UNAM, México), Juan Piovani (UNLP-CONICET, Argentina).

The sociology of Latin America, established in the region over the past eighty years, is a thriving field whose major contributions include dependence theory, world-systems theory, and historical debates on economic development, among others. The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Latin America provides research essays that introduce the readers to the discipline's key areas and current trends, specifically with regard to contemporary sociology in Latin America, as well as a collection of innovative empirical studies deploying a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The essays in the Handbook are arranged in eight research subfields in which scholars are currently making significant theoretical and methodological contributions: Sociology of the State, Social Inequalities, Sociology of Religion, Collective Action and Social Movements, Sociology of Migration, Sociology of Gender, Medical Sociology, and Sociology of Violence and Insecurity. Due to the deterioration of social and economic conditions, as well as recent disruptions to an already tense political environment, these have become some of the most productive and important fields in Latin American sociology. This roiling sociopolitical atmosphere also generates new and innovative expressions of protest and survival, which are being explored by sociologists across different continents today. The essays included in this collection offer a map to and a thematic articulation of central sociological debates that make it a critical resource for those scholars and students eager to understand contemporary sociology in Latin America.

Human societies are influencing nature in such a way that their independent analysis is no longer suitable. Fortunately, social-ecological systems provide a conceptual framework for the interconnected analysis of societies and ecosystems. However, in the case of Latin America, the complexity of social-ecological processes undermined a much-needed compilation of theoretical concepts, methods and case studies. Increasing readers’ understanding of such systems using a postnormal approach, the book discusses current concepts and methods with examples of studies from eight countries. It is a useful resource for social actors, government decision makers and scholars.

In this important new book Jorge Larrain examines the trajectories of modernity and identity in Latin America and their reciprocal relationships. Drawing on a large body of work across a vast historical and geographical range, he offers an innovative and wide-ranging account of the cultural transformations and processes of modernization that have occurred in Latin America since colonial times. The book begins with a theoretical discussion of the concepts of modernity and identity. In contrast to theories which present modernity and identity in Latin America as mutually excluding phenomena, the book shows their continuity and interconnection. It also traces historically the respects in which the Latin American trajectory to modernity differs from or converges with other trajectories, using this as a basis to explore specific elements of Latin America's culture and modernity today. The originality of Larrain's approach lies in the wide coverage and combination of sources drawn from the social sciences, history and literature. The volume relates social commentaries, literary works and media developments to the periods covered, to the changing social end economic structure, and to changes in the prevailing ideologies. This book will appeal to second and third-year undergraduates and Masters level students doing courses in sociology, cultural studies and Latin American history, politics and literature. .