This Palgrave Pivot presents a concise yet comprehensive history of
sociology in Ecuador. The case of Ecuador is especially interesting, as
Ecuadorian sociology oscillated between theoretical debates-some of them
out of time-and a constant search for ways of applying them to the local
reality. In the decades after its formal creation in 1915, early
academic sociology in Ecuador worked creatively with already outdated
theories around positivism and organicism to understand the indigenous
population's position, the regional fragmentation, and the formation of
a coherent nation-state in Ecuador. After a short attempt of installing
a more technical sociology in the 1960s, those topics were taken up and
re-read by Marxist-inspired critical sociology after the 1970s, leading
to the nation-wide institutionalization of one particular tradition that
could connect to continental debates. This book engages with several
relevant debates in social sciences and humanities, particularly by
adding to the thriving research on social sciences and the role of the
university and higher education in Latin America. Furthermore, it
touches some recently influential topics in sociology: Ecuadorian
sociology can be read as Southern Theory or engaged with from a
postcolonial or decolonial perspective; the research on how ideas
travel, are diffused or localized is vital for understanding sociology
in Ecuador; the relation between academia and politics; and more.
