Abstract

YAPU CONDO, Mario; APAZA ONTIVEROS, Edgar Fernando  and  ANTEZANA FLORES, Ronald. An approach to the institutionalization of Sociology in Bolivia. A study of the Instituto de Sociología Boliviana (Isbo). Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2019, vol.42, n.2, pp.113-134. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v42n2.77088.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Bolivia attempted to make the university an "object of knowledge"; although this was not possible, those efforts are expressed in some publications. A historical perspective is also lacking, since the few studies carried out cover only up to 1930. In this context, the article addresses the ups and downs of the institutionalization of sociology as a discipline, in its research and education dimensions, which was caught up in the tension among intellectual and political projects, competition among areas, and financial difficulties. In Bolivia, there are currently five undergraduate sociology programs, the first of which was created in 1967 at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), in La Paz, and the last, 2006 at the Universidad de San Francisco Xavier (USFX), in Chuquisaca. The Instituto de Sociología Boliviana (Isbo) of USFX, created in 1940, is taken as object of this study, in order to describe and analyze the main factors involved in the emergence and development of sociology. The critical discussion of the topic is based on the debate over institution and institutionalization in the field of university education, which dates back to classical authors like Durkheim, but focuses mainly on the contributions of Foucault, Bourdieu, Kuhn, and Laudan, insofar as the institutionalization of research and education models is a social, political, and mental or symbolic process, which allows for the link with the idea of traditions -instead of paradigms- that presuppose the establishment of a logical, practical, and mental temporality. For this reason and to avoid the risks of a certain systemic functionalism that plagues institutional knowledge, we introduced the ideas of conflict and tension into the analysis. The methodology is based on primary and secondary data. With respect to primary data, which are the main part of the project, a documentary review was carried out in the university archives referring to Isbo, including correspondence and reports, among others. The objective was to combine genealogical and institutional analysis based on information regarding Isbo, as a theoretical-methodological tool for discursive argumentation on institutionalization, as has been done in other cases in Latin America.

Descriptors: academic institutions, academic tradition, Bolivia, conflicts, professional education.

Keywords : disciplines; history of sociology; institutionalization; social sciences; sociology; university.

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