Trayectorias olvidadas, tradiciones silenciadas. Guillermo Terrera y la “sociología de cátedra”

Abstract

This paper reconstructs the trajectory of a little-known author in the history of sociology in Argentina: Guillermo Alfredo Terrera. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that, despite the loss of centrality of the so-called “chair sociology” in Argentina in the stage that opens after 1957, this tradition maintained its validity in a good part of the practitioners of sociology, especially in the Interior of the country. For this reason, the meaning of dealing with a sociologist considered marginal to the Argentine sociological mainstream has to do with the fact that his social properties can account for the survival of the group of “traditional sociologists”, who continued to participate in the teaching of the discipline in national universities, at least until the 1980s. After outlining some methodological aspects that guide the research and listing the characteristics of the so-called “chair sociology”, the article focuses on reconstructing the circulation spaces of Terrera to, finally, investigate some central aspects of his sociological perspective embodied in his most important works dedicated to the subject. Finally, the conclusions raise the relevance of investigating these “anachronistic ways” of teaching the discipline, given their importance in the dissemination of social science in spaces outside the professional training of Argentine sociologists today.