Politics as a situated practice. Considerations on the recent renewal of political sociology in Argentina, from an interpretative approach

GABRIEL VOMMARO; MARIANA GENÉ

Santiago de Chile

Conferencia; Conferencia Internacional Redefining Political Sociology; 2017

Universidad Andrés Bello, Research Comité on Political Sociology, ISA, IPSA

This paper aims to analyze the recent renewal of political sociology in Latin America. First, it recovers some of the traditions on which that perspective is based, from the founding works of Gino Germani to the most recent ones of Guillermo O?Donnell. It exposes theirs fundamental contributions in both conceptual and methodological terms for a realistic understanding of what political and policy-centered processes are. These authors analyzed politics as the result of the connections between the institutional sphere and other social universes. Second, this paper develops some possible articulations between macro and micro questions combining classical works and the new interpretive political sociology. This combination of perspectives was possible through to the use of middle-range concepts. To exemplify this approach, it provides some examples of recent research on contemporary Argentine politics. To conclude, some considerations about the importance of political sociology for an understanding of politics and the political are made; hence, distancing this approach from institutionalism and from analysis exclusively focused on discourses.