Abstract

BELTRAN VILLEGAS, Miguel Ángel  and  ARIZA SANTAMARIA, Rosembert. Sociology a dangerous profession: memory of stigma and silencing. Rev. colomb. soc. [online]. 2022, vol.45, n.2, pp.19-44.  Epub Jan 10, 2023. ISSN 0120-159X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rcs.v45n2/96282.

This article presents an advance of the investigation referred to the forms of state violence against the universities based on the historical review and supported by written and oral sources and in some processes of stigmatization, persecution and criminalization of the sociological work that has been given in the development of sociology in the country, insofar as it has been characterized by being critical of the national reality and the State itself. The sociology departments became one of the places where the State activates its strategies of harassment, pointing out and, there, it seeks to criminalize the students and teachers who challenge the regime, who question the order, and who carry out social processes, political, and economic inside and outside the university. The objective of this research is precisely to study the historical itinerary of the multiple stigmatization strategies carried out by different sectors throughout these seventy years of the discipline in Colombia. One of the crucial moments investigated was the breakdown of sociology and the State produced by the militancy of Camilo Torres in the insurgent ranks, this fact undoubtedly polarized and produced institutional distrust about what to do with sociologists. Another aspect considered is the perspective of Orlando Fals Borda who, together with other academics and students from different departments, constituted a sociology that bothered the status quo and the established order, a fact that provoked different criticisms from traditional sectors of power that advocated a discipline focused on problems related to the interests of the State. The cases analyzed allow us to verify as a finding the systematic nature of these events and to affirm that they are not isolated or exceptional events of state violence, the study of the prosecution and murders of sociologists, victims of the stigmatization and silencing of the State, elucidated the political and legal practices that are carried out at different times in the development of sociology in our country.

Keywords : Colombia; critical thinking; sociology; stigmatization; universities; violence.

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