Caution, sociologists working in Argentina! What did they really do after graduation during the 1960s and 1970s?

DIEGO PEREYRA

Varsovia

Conferencia; ISA, Research Committee on History of Sociology Interim Conference, Monuments, Relics and Revivals; 2016

International Sociological Associarion

?Caution, sociologists working in Argentina! What did they really do after graduation during the 1960s and 1970s??, ISA, Research Committee on History of Sociology Interim Conference, Monuments, Relics and Revivals, Varsovia, 6 al 8 de julio de 2016.Since the first sociological departments were created in Argentina in the last 1950s the field greatly influenced both the political and cultural agenda in that country. Promptly, sociologists were perceived as performers able to promote social change and to orient public policies. Around 600 sociology students graduated in sociology in Argentina from 1961 to 1970. All they had an early, swift and successful labour insertion, in academy, state planning, management consultancy and other diverse activities. It could be explained by their expertise to fully understand modernity and rationalization process. However, many different reasons could explain that success linked with an academic zenith. Why sociology was so fashionable in a peripheral country? Were the professional and labour elections of those young graduates connected with both their socialization and political and social networking and affiliation? Did professionalization of sociology turn a different path in the global south? This paper comprehensively studies the employment situation of sociology graduates in Argentina during the aforementioned period. This also offers a mapping on where they have worked, what they did and which were their self-representations as sociologists. Methodology combines typical survey strategies of employment studies (but including a critical focus), trajectories reconstruction and in-deep interviews.