The Internationalization of Sociology in Argentina, 1985-2015: Geographies and Trends
The Internationalization of Sociology in Argentina, 1985-2015: Geographies and Trends
The Internationalization of Sociology in Argentina, 1985-2015: Geographies and Trends
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Abstract
This article examines how recent generations of Argentine sociologists relate to current global
processes that are shaping international academic exchanges and explores the local impact of
internationalization trends. More specifically, it analyzes the geographic circulation of
Argentine sociologists and their products (books and magazine articles), reveals the
participation of these sociologists on the most coveted circuits based on the current dynamics of
international academic exchange and explores how the internationalization of a sociologist’s
careers influences his/her intellectual prestige and power in local academia.
Key-words
Internationalization – Argentine sociologists – comparative – generations – segmented circuits –
geographies of internationalization – Latin America - central-peripheral circuit – regional
education circuit - international academic exchanges - asymmetrical relations - work style –
hierarchy - academic prestige – academic power – professionalization - linguistic capital -
intellectual excellence -
1. Introduction
Since the mid-1980s in Argentina, unusual processes at the academic level have
was not introduced at the university level until 1957. For over three decades now, sociology has
developed in a context of political stability, after an initial two decades in which successive
coups d’état at the state level that prevented sustained intellectual and institutional growth in the
series of institutional innovations has altered the configuration of the university system,
include the expansion of the higher education system through new public and private
universities and increased investments in science and technology research. There has also been
fellowships and research track positions at the National Council for Scientific and Technical
significantly in the mid-1990s, as did the number of periodicals in the social sciences and
Argentine sociology in recent decades. Much has been said about the internationalization of
sociology when it officially became part of university education in Argentina in the mid-1950s.
The discipline’s most renowned intellectual and institutional proponent in Argentina, Gino
Germani (a foreigner himself)i, made the new department of sociology of his day into an
unofficial international center for study and research. One aspect of this internationalization was
a program for intensive scientific cooperation with professors and researchers from Europe, the
U.S. and other countries across Latin America. In the first few years of the discipline, around
twenty professors from other countries taught or conducted research at the Department of
Sociology at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and the Sociology Institute Germani headed in
Buenos Aires.
Another initiative that Germani put into motion was a network of international
organizations which provided support and funding for the social sciences (UNESCO, OAS),
U.S. institutions that offered fellowships for scholars (the Ford and Rockefeller foundations),
and global organizations like the International Sociological Association. Germani’s active
involvement in two regional centers founded in 1957, the Latin American School of the Social
Sciences (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, or FLACSO, in Chile) and the Latin
American Center for Research in the Social Sciences (Centro Latinoamericano de Pesquisas en
Ciências Sociais, or CLAPCS, in Rio de Janeiro), proved critical to this international network
and decisive for the immediate future of the social sciences (Franco 2007).
for increasing the intellectual capital of the new sociologists, making the international facet of
the social sciences even more prominent among its first recruits. With the help of subsidies from
the Ford Foundation, most of Germani’s closest collaborators did earn graduate degrees abroad,
mainly in the United States and England, and, to a lesser degree, in France. As there were no
graduate programs in the social sciences in Argentina at the time, studying abroad was the only
way to earn a higher degree in the discipline for many years. Of the forty sociologists born
between 1928 and 1945 who earned graduate degrees abroad between 1960 and 1980 (and
whose academic records are available), sixteen received their degree in the U.S., eleven in
France, seven in England and six in Chile. In this regard, study abroad took root as a method for
internationalizing intellectual capital during these first years and went on to become a veritable
In any case, all of these strategies for consolidating the discipline helped shape an
experience.” The sociologists who embarked upon their academic careers in the mid-1980s
assimilated this tradition while also maneuvering global processes that have since redefined
international academic exchanges. Recent studies have shown that the current process of
internationalization in the social sciences takes place in segmented circuits: the hyper-central,
spheres (the Anglo-Saxon world, especially the U.S.) became more prominent and a certain
work style (publishing in journals) became the norm, along with a specific language (English).
The literature on this topic has contributed significantly to the creation of a “core-periphery
model” for analyzing the power relations at work behind the globalization of the academic
market, emphasizing the inequalities associated with international academic exchangesii. While
the asymmetrical relations of these international circuits have long been acknowledged,
researchers have yet to explore the impact of internationalization trends on local academia. This
article intends to address precisely this aspect of the academic globalization process.
In keeping with that objective, we will examine how the new generations of Argentine
sociologists relates to the actual global processes that are shaping international academic
exchanges. To answer this question, we have set four specific objectives here:
1. analyze the geographic circulation of Argentine sociologists and their products (books
3. determine the participation of these sociologists in the most coveted circuits based on
Our study analyzes the curricula vitae of 136 sociologists who graduated from the
School of Social Sciences at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, the country’s most important
university, between 1986 and 2007. All of the sociologists included in the study are currently
working in the national university system and all hold a doctorate. The study population was
52.6 percent men and 47.4 percent women; the majority are age 35 to 55 and their principal
workplace is an academic institution in the city of Buenos Aires or its metropolitan area. Within
the broader context of the latest generation of sociologists, the characteristics of this specific
population–having completed the country’s oldest and most prestigious degree program in
sociology, holding a doctorate,iii being members at institutions located in a geographic area with
extensive resources and opportunities for academic recognition–allow us to posit that they are
most likely to obtain important positions in the academic field of sociology. Based on these
criteria, we proceeded to randomly select 136 résumés from among scholars, giving us enough
cases to consider professionals who have been in the field for decades along with others whose
careers have just begun. When selecting the cases for our study, we also contemplated the need
to include both sociologists who had earned their doctorate in Argentina and others who
completed theirs abroad. As we will see, these two variables—seniority in the field and country
where the Ph.D. was completed—both prove critical in our study. The analysis of this
sciences and the processes of building academic prestige and power in the field of Argentine
sociology.
2. Geographies of internationalization
hierarchy of the international circuits where Argentine sociologists and their products circulate.
There are three main circuits: the global hyper-central circuit (USA), the global-central circuit
(France, Great Britain, Germany), and the central peripheral circuit (Brazil, Mexico). Table 1
offers an initial glimpse at foreign circulation among Argentine scholars. The second table (2)
expands on this information, revealing the geographical distribution of this experience abroad.
YES NO
Completed a doctorate abroad 37% 63% 100%
Went on research stays abroad 38% 62% 100%
Was invited to teach classes abroad 30% 70% 100%
Directed international research projects 12% 88% 100%
Participated in international research projects 36% 64% 100%
EARNED RESEARCH
DOCTORATE STAYS VISITING
ABROAD ABROAD SCHOLARS
Global hyper-central
(USA) 9.8% 17.5% 15%
Global-central (France, 52.9% 43.5%
Great Britain,
Germany) 25%
Central peripheral
(Brazil, Mexico) 21.5% 12% 23%
Spain 13.7% 13% 14%
Other LATAM
countries 0% 1% 19%
Other countries 1% 10% 1%
Didn’t know/didn’t
respond 0% 3% 3%
Total 100% 100% 100%
Thirty-seven percent of the population of sociologists analyzed went abroad for their doctoral
studies. The circuit of European countries (France, Germany and Great Britain) was the most
popular choice among sociologists who left Argentina to obtain their Ph.D. (52.9 percent). If we
add Spain (13.7 percent) to this pole, Europe becomes the predominant option for international
study outside the U.S. and the countries of Latin America. Within Europe, France is the most
frequent destination, attracting 45 percent of Argentine sociologists who traveled abroad for
their doctoral studies.iv The central circuit within Latin America (Brazil and Mexico) attracted
21.5 percent of the sociologists who went abroad for their Ph.D. The U.S. is not one of the
predominant sites chosen for this level of graduate studies (9.8 percent).
when we examine circulation abroad through research stays. Thirty-eight percent of the entire
population went on research stays, which are considered part of professional advancement after
European countries, 43.5 percent on its central circuit. If we examine the weight of each
country, we find that 28.5 percent of stays were in France, 14 percent in Spain, 12 percent in
Germany, 3 percent in England and 6 percent in other countries of Europe (Italy, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Switzerland and the Czech Republic). It is important to note that the
preponderance of the United States increases among visiting scholars (17.5 percent). However,
becomes clear that although circulation is most predominant in the European pole, it is mainly
limited to non-Anglo-Saxon institutions (as seen in the low percentage of research stays in
The countries of Latin America and its most important circuit (Brazil and Mexico)
regain ground in comparison to the European pole when considering the Argentine sociologists
who travel abroad as visiting professors. Thirty percent of the sample taught abroad, with
scholars gravitating towards the regional pole due to the language factor. The countries of Latin
America captured 42 percent of Argentine sociologists who traveled abroad as visiting scholars.
Brazil has a particularly prominent place on this circuit, surpassing even Mexico.v While Brazil
attracted 17 percent of visiting professors, Mexico received just 7 percent. This is what gives
Brazil the highest preponderance among Latin American countries (19 percent). If we add Spain
to this list, we find that Spanish and Portuguese-speaking institutions attract 56 percent of all
This brief overview of the circulation of Argentine sociologists who entered academia
since the end of the 1980s allows us to reach some preliminary conclusions. Internationalization
through doctoral studies, research stays and trips as a visiting scholar abroad is neither
widespread nor rare. From the point of view of the segmentation of the global academic sphere,
the dominant path of internationalization is the central circuit comprised of European countries,
especially France. In spite of its secondary place in terms of degrees, the hyper-central circuit is
completing graduate studies. When considered together, the two circuits capture 63 percent of
degrees earned abroad, 61 percent of research stays and 40 percent of teaching outside of
Argentina. In terms of the last type of circulation (teaching abroad), the Latin American circuit
recovers its standing in comparison to the hyper-central and global-central academic spheres.
The visiting scholar circuit brings into the fold other countries in the region that were absent as
This section will focus on the international circulation of products (books, book
chapters and journal articles) by Argentine sociologists. The majority of publications, including
78.2 percent of books, 72.2 percent of book chapters and 57.8 percent of journal articles, are
published in Argentina. This population thus releases most of its intellectual production on the
local academic market. However, the geographic destination of books and journal articles
published outside Argentina is also of interest.
Books
released by
foreign Articles in
publishing foreign
houses journals
Global hyper-central 12%
(USA) 8.8%
Global-central (France, 18.8%
Germany, Great Britain) 12.9%
Central peripheral 20.6%
(Mexico, Brazil) 36.6%
Spain 29% 19.8%
Other LATAM countries 8.6% 13.7%
Other countries 11% 8.3%
TOTAL 100.0% 100.00%
circulation is similar in some aspects to the circulation of the agents themselves, but different in
others. Table 3 reveals that 12.2 percent of book and 8.8 percent of journal articles by Argentine
sociologists are published in the United States. The circulation of both the agents and their
products on this hyper-central circuit is therefore limited. Unlike the agents, who gravitate
towards the global-central circuit (France, England and Germany), however, the dominant pole
for books and journal articles is Spain, which releases 29 percent of the books published by
America, the prevalence of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking outlets becomes evident in terms
of the international circulation of books, with 58.2 percent published in Spain and Latin
American countries. Putting aside these outlets, France is the country where Argentina
When the circulation of journal articles abroad is the focus, the central-peripheral circuit
of Latin America predominates (36.6 percent). The weight of circulation outside the other
circuits (hyper-central and central) increases if considering the journal articles published in
Spain and other Latin American countries, which publish 69.8 percent of all articles run in
journals abroad. France also loses ground in this type of circulation, taking fourth place on the
list. The order by country is Spain (18 percent), Mexico (16 percent), Brazil (13.5 percent) and
France (9 percent).
Taking into account that Brazilian journals accept articles written in Spanish, the data
presented allow us to infer that Spanish is the main language for export among Argentine
sociologists whose career in academia began over the past three decades. This is different from
collaborations have been accompanied by a gradual rise in the use of English as the language
for disseminating research findings, with the resulting drop in the use of French and German,”
Two consonant trends can be detected in the global overview of geographies and
circuits of internationalization among the Argentine sociologists who were the focus of this
study. The first is the internationalization of the education and professional advancement of
agents, with Europe–and more specifically, France–as the dominant region. The circulation of
the products authored by these sociologists is also international, but generally occurs outside the
central and hyper-central circuits. Latin America and Spain are the most common destinations
for these “exports,” which are mainly written in Spanish. This global overview reveals an
incongruity between a strategy for the accumulation of scientific capital that mainly takes place
in the central and hyper-central circuits (degree programs and in some cases, stays for
professional advancement abroad) and the placement of the products resulting from the
a) Internationalization segments
In the previous section, we argued that internationalization is not ubiquitous among
the selected population, we designed a typology with dimensions on the circulation of people
and their products to measure the density of interactions abroad.vi In this way, we hope to
provide insight into the impact international experiences have on the career of the scholars
included in the study. The members of this population were then divided into three categories
according to their level of internationalization (high, intermediate or low). The following graph
Graph 1. Typology of Internationalization
High
17%
Low
41%
Intermediate
42%
Table 4. Place where doctoral studies were completed by types of internationalization and
graduation cohortvii
1985-1995 1996-2006
Cohort Cohort
Intermediat
Low Intermediate High Low e High
Ph.D. in 76.5%
Argentina 50% 20% 87.50% 60.60% 25%
Ph.D. abroad 23.50% 50% 80% 12.50% 39.40% 75%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
The lowest internationalization category is comprised of sociologists who graduated
between 1996 and 2007 (70 percent), with the remaining 30 percent having graduated between
1985 and 1995. A total of 76.5 percent of the members of this category earned their Ph.D. in
Argentina. Forty percent of the intermediate category corresponds to the first cohort and the
remaining 60 percent, to the more recent graduates. Fifty percent of the intermediates earned
sociologists who graduated between 1985 and 1995 (65.2 percent), with the remaining 34.8
percent graduating the following decade. Seventy-five percent of this group received their
doctorates abroad.
From these numbers, it becomes clear that earning a doctorate abroad is closely tied to
high international career paths, as a Ph.D. in Argentina correlates with the lowest category
included in this typology. Eighty-four percent of those included in the low category earned their
Ph.D. in Argentina, while 78.3 percent of sociologists with the highest level of
internationalization completed their doctoral studies abroad. The weight of study abroad as a
key investment for a more international career path also becomes clear when the generational
variable is considered (Table 4). Over this entire period and in spite of changes in the
This initial approximation leads us to consider that the lowest category entails different
realities depending on whether it is viewed as structural or as a point along the career path
where advancement is still possible. Belonging to the 1985-1995 cohort, especially among those
who did not earn their academic credentials abroad (76.5 percent of this group), increases the
are in the lowest category of our internationalization typology but belong to the younger cohort
are more likely to remain in this relegated position only temporarily. As we have seen, the
internationalization. The projection of this variable within the 1996-2006 cohort is limited to
12.5 percent of the group’s members. In comparison with the lowest category, the number of
members of the 1985-1995 cohort and the quantity of sociologists with academic credentials
obtained outside of Argentina grows for this younger cohort. Finally, there are also differences
among the 17 percent of the population that occupies the highest category. The analysis showed
that certain members from the first cohort earned their doctorate abroad at a young age, yielding
the lengthiest internationalized career paths. It also revealed a more dynamic group within the
second cohort that earned doctorates abroad and brought to bear strategies to foster more
international exchanges; this group thus stood out professionally, even among peers who earned
their Ph.D. outside the country. Finally, there is a small group within the 1985-1995 cohort that
did not do doctoral studies abroad but did find ways to compensate for this initial disadvantage.
If studies abroad intensify internationalization, this group shows that speeding up career paths
(the youngest group with a degree earned abroad) also affects internationalization, as do
strategies to compensate for the benefits of investing in study abroad (the oldest group, without
b) Types of Internationalization
Participatio
Publishing Teachin Directing a n in
books g research Grant research Research
abroad abroad Project s projects stays Articles
Total 30% 30% 13% 39% 35% 37% 98%
High 87% 83% 52% 70% 61% 61% 100%
Intermediate 38% 40% 9% 49% 49% 45% 100%
Low 0% 0% 0% 26% 19% 19% 91%
The dynamics of internationalization have a bearing on the different kinds of circulation
of both the agents and their products over the course of their careers. This section focuses on the
types of internationalization of the scholars examined here and addresses the following
questions: what channels or venues for the circulation of people and products can be used to
categorize this population? How frequently do these experiences recur in the career paths of the
Argentine scholars?
Table 5 offers information relevant to these questions. Thirty percent of the population
has published at least one book abroad and taught classes outside Argentina and 37-39 percent
have been part of an international research project, received an international grant or gone on a
research stay abroad. The most common experience is publishing articles abroad (98 percent)
while the most uncommon is directing an international research project (15 percent).
This global overview serves as a reference when analyzing each of the categories of
internationalization and the career paths of the members of each category in terms of possible
types of circulation. The publication of books abroad, teaching at foreign universities and
leading international projects are clearly three activities lacking in the lowest
greater (international) social capital than the rest of the internationalization venues, which
explains why they are so scarce among the least internationalized agents: international networks
are critical to academic endeavors abroad. The lowest position in the typology, held by 41
percent (Graph 1) of the population in this study, is reinforced by the near absence of other
internationalization channels in their career paths. Only 19 percent of the members of this
category went on research stays or participated in projects abroad, with 26 percent receiving
international grants. For the low internationalization category, the publication of journal articles
venues–which comprises around 42.2 percent of the sociologists analyzed, 38 percent published
grant and participated in an international project and 45 percent went on a research stay abroad.
The least common venue in the career paths of the agents in this category is that of research
project director. The publication of journal articles is once again the most common type of
circulation abroad. Unlike the low category, the internationalization paths that allow people and
their products to circulate abroad are more diversified in the middle category. Unlike the highest
category, however, and as we will now see, the degree of this diversification is lower.
studied, includes the agents most likely to have had experience in all types of international
activities. In fact, 87 percent of this group has published books abroad, 83 percent have taught
abroad, 52 percent have directed an international project, 70 percent have received international
grants, 61 percent have gone on research stays and 61 percent have participated in international
projects.
the category. In the highest category, members have published 1.6 books on average; traveled
abroad 3.4 times as visiting scholars; served as research project directors 1.75 times and
participated in such projects 3.7 times; received 2.68 international grants; and traveled abroad
for research stays 2.07 times. The members of this segment have published 12.3 articles abroad
on average. In the intermediate category, the numbers are as follows: 1.23 books published
abroad on average, 1.5 trips as visiting scholars, one position directing an international project
and three involvements in such a project. In this same category, agents received 1.4
international grants and went on 1.9 research stays abroad, publishing 9.27 articles on average
in foreign journals. Finally, the lowest segment has the most meager levels in each channel or
mode of circulation. In principle, as mentioned earlier, international career paths among this
category do not commonly involve publishing books, teaching abroad or directing projects.
Those who did participate in international projects did so 1.4 times, received 1.3 international
grants and went on 1.5 research stays abroad. Members of this low segment have published 6.6
c) Participation in the international publication circuits
In this chapter, we analyze the circuits in which Argentine sociologists allocate their
products based on their position in the internationalization segments. This sections aims to
address two questions. First, do the books and articles of the more internationalized sociologists
circulate on the hyper-central and central circuits? And second, do their career paths follow the
general pattern described above, thus reinforcing the incongruities between the accumulation of
scientific capital on the central circuit– and hyper-central circuit, in some cases– and the
their privileged position instead translate into a more intense and continuous interaction with the
To begin to address these questions, we compared the index of book and article
publication for each segment. The members of the lowest segment did not publish any book
abroad but 34 percent of all of the articles they published went to foreign journals. Among the
middle segment, 23 percent of books and 43 percent of articles went abroad, while the amounts
rise to 35 percent (books) and 53 percent (articles) for the highest segment.
clear that publishing abroad is important in all of the categories of internationalization. The
members of the lowest category who completed their doctorate in Argentina sent 32 percent of
their journal articles abroad while their colleagues in the same category who earned a Ph.D.
abroad published more than half (51 percent) of their articles with foreign journals. In the
middle category, these percentages are 41 percent (books) and 47 percent (articles), rising to 50
Table 6. Books and journal articles by types of internationalization and location of publisherix
Magazine
Books articles
Intermediate High Low Intermediate High
No data
available 4% 6%
Other
countries 11.5% 16% 33.3% 28.6% 20.6%
Spain 42% 19% 11.9% 13% 17.1%
Central
peripheral 7.7% 31% 40.8% 36.5% 32%
Central 23% 15.6% 8.8% 12.7% 18.2%
Hyper-central 11.5% 12.4% 5.2% 9.2% 12.1%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
international publishing according to the national origin of the publishing houses and foreign
journals that print their products. As noted in the analysis of the entire population of sociologists
regardless of their internationalization path, the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking outlets also
take priority when considering the books and articles published abroad by all three segments.
These outlets attract half of all the products exported by these sociologists, if we consider other
countries of Latin America in addition to Mexico and Brazil. In this regard, there seems to be no
qualitative difference in terms of the internationalization of the highest and lowest segments. If
we focus on the countries where the products of Argentine sociologists circulate, disregarding a
few exceptions (like the number of books published in Spain among the intermediate segment),
the central-peripheral circuit is where the products of all three segment circulate most
frequently.
To follow up on this initial finding, it is necessary to hone in on the circuit with the
highest level of internationalization. The members of this segment place their products on the
hyper-central and global-central circuits more frequently than their colleagues in the other
segments. While 21 percent of journal articles by the entire population are on these two circuits,
this percentage rises to 31 percent for only the highest segment, compared to 14 percent for the
lowest segment and 21.9 percent for the intermediate segment. When the publication of articles
among the high segment is further examined, we find that its members more frequently export
their products to the European circuit (mainly France) than to the United States, like the general
population.
The weighting associated with the circuit where one’s doctorate was earned is critical to
reversing this trend. The members of the most internationalized segment who earned their Ph.D.
in the United States sent 40 percent of the articles they published abroad to this academic
market and 11 percent of their articles to the global-central circuit. When the same analysis is
applied to those who did their Ph.D. on the global-central circuit –while bearing in mind the
predominant role of France– we find that 11 percent of the articles this group published abroad
went to the hyper-central circuit (USA) and 32 percent were sent to the academic market of the
central European circuit. The sociologists in the highest internationalization segment who
earned their Ph.D. in Brazil and Mexico rarely sent articles to the hyper-central (4 percent) or
central circuit (12 percent), publishing 60 percent of the articles they sent abroad in Brazil and
Mexico. A similar trend can be seen among those who earned their doctorate in Argentina, who
published 41 percent of all their foreign journal articles in Mexico and Brazil, 12 percent on the
When these publication circuits are compared with the journal indexing rates, the results
are quite similar. The Argentine sociologists examined in the study send 29.8 percent of their
articles to “mainstream” circuits,x 17.6 percent to transnational circuits, 22.1 percent to regional
circuits and 29.1 percent to non-indexed publications. One initial observation to consider is that
the total. When all articles are considered, 57.2 percent are published in Argentina. However,
just 22.7 percent of the articles are published in indexed Argentina journals that are part of the
mainstream circuit. The universe of social science journals in Argentina is rarely considered
within the most prestigious circuits because its journals are non-indexed (Beigel and Salatino
2015). More than 70 percent of the articles by Argentine scholars in mainstream journals abroad
are published in Latin America and Spain: 36 percent in Mexico and Brazil, 13 percent in Spain,
and 21 percent in the other countries of Latin America. Mainstream journals published in the
United States capture 13 percent of the articles sent to this type of journals and one percent goes
It is important to determine whether this trend also applies to the distribution of articles
in the most internationalized segment of Argentine scholars. Among this segment, 18 percent of
the articles published in mainstream journals abroad go to the hyper-central circuit, 15 percent
to the central circuit, 16 percent to Spain, 43 percent to Latin American countries and 8 percent
to other countries. The information reveals that even for this more internationalized segment,
Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries are the most common destination for their articles,
though the journals where their articles are published are better positioned on index rankings.
academic circuits for the international circulation of symbolic goods (books and articles). The
goal of this section is to show how the segments of internationalization correlate with
intellectual prestige and academic power in the field of Argentine sociology. Examining this
correlation is useful when assessing how the international scientific capital a scholar
How do the members of each segment contribute to the local publishing market? Are
the most internationalized members the ones who publish with the most prestigious publishing
houses? These two questions are critical in the framework of an academic field whose criteria
for renown are weakly institutionalized, a field which borrows from a broader intellectual field
in order to establish its hierarchies. For this reason, book deals with important publishing houses
For each segment, we have calculated the average number of books published with
Argentine publishers. The lowest segment published an average of 1.15 books; the intermediate
segment, 2.05; and the highest segment, 2.75. The length of one’s academic career affects these
numbers, since the highest category is also the one with a proportionally higher number of
The difference between segments is not just quantitative but also qualitative. Table 7
reveals how the sociologists included in the study are distributed according to the publishing
houses that most frequently publish the books by these scholars. As Dujovne and Sorá note in
this volume, three publishing houses are considered the most prestigious among Argentine
sociologists: Siglo XXI, Fondo de Cultura Económica and Paidós. The information provided on
this table shows that the first two tend to publish the authors from the highest
internationalization segment. In both cases, around 70 percent of the authors published are in
the highest segment. The third publishing house that most commonly recruits these authors is
EUDEBA (30 percent), the Universidad de Buenos Aires press. It is important to note that in
most of the cases, the authors published are the ones with the lengthiest careers i.e. members of
Types of Internationalization
Low Intermediate High TOTAL
Cohorts Cohorts
Cohorts
according to Cohorts according according to
according
year they to year they year they
to year they TOTAL
received their received their BA received their
received their BA
BA BA
1985
1985- 1996- 1985- 1996- 1996- 1985- 1996-
-
1995 2007 1995 2007 2007 1995 2007
1995
% of books
23.1 46.2
published by 15.4% 0.0% 15.4% 38.5% 7.7% 53.8% 100.0%
% %
EUDEBA
% of books
63.6
published by 18.2% 18.2% 18.2% 45.5% 0.0% 0.0% 36.4% 100.0%
%
BIBLOS
% of books
10.0 40.0
published by 20.0% 20.0% 30.0% 10.0% 10.0% 60.0% 100.0%
% %
PROMETEO
% of books
60.0 30.0
published by SIGLO 0.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% 10.0% 70.0% 100.0%
% %
XXI
% of books
16.7 33.3
published by 0.0% 16.7% 50.0% 16.7% 0.0% 66.7% 100.0%
% %
PAIDÓS
% of books
published by 71.4 28.6
0.0% 14.3% 0.0% 14.3% 0.0% 71.4% 100.0%
FONDO DE % %
CULTURA
ECONÓMICA
% of books
23.5 43.2
published by other 8.5% 16.0% 24.9% 16.9% 10.3% 56.8% 100.0%
% %
publishing houses
We define the academic power category using three indicators: placement on the
scientific research track, teaching position in the university system, and positions as research
project directors. Table 8 shows the likelihood of getting on the research track at CONICET, the
most important public entity for scientific investigation in Argentina, increases with
internationalization. Sixty-three percent of the members of the lowest segment are CONICET
researchers, compared to 80 percent in the intermediate category and 91 percent of the highest
category. As per cursus honorum, positions of academic power require considerable time
investments. It is thus necessary to compare the cohort of sociologists who graduated from 1985
researcher. As shown on Table 8, the data show a high correlation between the types of
internationalization and the likelihood of this cohort’s members obtaining this position of
academic power.
Internationalizatio
n Type
Intermediat Cohor
Low Cohort e t High Cohort
Academi
c Power 1985- 1985-
Indicators Total 1995 Total 1995 Total 1985-1995
on the
CONICE
T
researcher
track 63% 53% 80% 69.2% 91% 93.3%
Full
professor 28% 30% 29% 29.6% 69% 57%
Research
project
leader in
Argentina 1.8% 2.5% 3.3% 3.9% 5.3% 4.6%
A similar analysis can be done using the teaching positions that scholars hold in the
university system. Table 8 shows that 28 percent of the lowest category and 29 percent of the
middle segment are full professors (the highest position in Argentina’s university system), while
this jumps to 69 percent for the highest category. Given the high proportion of sociologists with
longer careers in this category –and the length of one’s career obviously affects one’s chance of
being appointed to a position of academic power– it is important to compare only the members
of each category of internationalization from the 1985-1995 cohort. Even in this case, members
of the highest internationalization segment still have more chances of success. Thirty percent of
this cohort holds the most prestigious positions as university professors in comparison to 57
Positions as research project leaders in Argentina reveal the same trend: a positive
correlation between types of internationalization and positions of academic power. For the
lowest internationalization category, the average number of positions at the head of a research
project funded and assessed by public and private entities within Argentina is 1.8 for each of its
members, 3.3 for sociologists in the middle category and 5.26 for the highest. To gauge the
effect of career length, we observed the performance of the 1985-1995 cohort in each segment
and noted the same trend for the highest category (2.47 projects for the members of the low
category vs. 3.9 for the intermediate category and 4.6 for the highest category).
This section has shown that the most internationalized Argentine sociologists are not
any more likely to get their scholarly products placed on international circuits than academics
from the other categories. However, these same sociologists are more likely to obtain more
Final considerations
in the education of the first generations of Argentine sociologists. Founded in 1957, the most
important school on this circuit was FLACSO, and its first graduate school program, the Latin
1958. Fifteen percent of the graduate degrees earned in the early years of sociology were at
FLACSO, a percentage that rises to 20 percent if we consider those who received their doctorate
available on the types of circulation of intellectual production among the FLACSO cohorts, the
work by Blanco and Sorá included in this volume shows how a separate regional circuit of
periodicals was created in parallel to the academic circuit. As a result, journals like América
latina (1958) and Revista Latinoamericana de Sociología (1965) channeled a vast portion of the
intellectual production of the sociologists during this period. More recent experiences reveal
that the regional circuit continues to draw Argentine sociologists studying abroad for a graduate
degree as well as a significant amount of their intellectual production, though Brazil –and to a
lesser extent, Mexico– has replaced Chile at the center of the circuit.
Argentine scholars on the regional circuit no longer appears to be the political wager it
represented in the first years of the social sciences (Blanco and Sorá 2016), when the pioneering
generation of sociologists made Latin America a priority, building a regional system for
education and research. Instead, the recent participation on regional circuits may correspond to
characterized by two major restrictions: a) a great number of new sociologists with graduate
Indirect evidence of this can be found by comparing publication in foreign journals and
non-indexed journals is more pronounced than the drop in publications in national journals.
Graph 2. Publication of journal articles abroad and in non-indexed journals from 1987-2016
is important to consider the proximity of Brazil and Mexico, whose academic markets boast a
vast selection of indexed journals. On these markets, Argentine sociologists have the chance to
get their work out there without incurring the translation costs required on other markets. Under
In relation to this last aspect of internationalization, this study has revealed that even the
most internationalized sociologists circulate and allocate their products to the peripheral circuits
more frequently than to the hyper-central and central circuits. What are the reasons for the lack
of participation on more central international circuits among the scholars in the highest
linguistic capital and the mastery of foreign languages, as options for internationalization
depend on them. Linguistic capital can in fact explain a good portion of this population’s
relegated position on global circuits, though it is also necessary to consider what occurs on local
academic markets in this explanation. Such markets have their own criteria for achieving
prestige that do not necessarily coincide with global standards. In this regard, the limited
attributed to incongruities between the criteria for intellectual excellence within Argentina and
those of the predominant academic markets. From this perspective, the new generations of
Argentine sociologists examined here are exposed to the tensions that accompany an academic
field open to global tendencies but also bound to a tradition strong enough to assert its own
References
Blanco, Alejandro and Luiz Jackson. 2015. Sociología en el espejo. Ensayistas, científicos
Blanco, Alejandro and Sorá, Gustavo. 2016. “Unity and Fragmentation in the Social Sciences in
Dujovne, Alejandro and Sorá, Gustavo. 2016. “Translating Western Social and Human Science
in Argentina. A Comparative Study of Translations from French, English, German, Italian and
formation des États-nations a la mondialization XIX-XXI siècle, ed., Gisèle Sapiro, 359-379. La
Découverte: Paris.
APPENDIX:
academic career. At the same time, considering that some of these dimensions (like the
(unlike, for example, the publication of articles in journals abroad, which requires no such
capital), we proceeded to rank the different dimensions according to the degree of previous
academic investments they entailed. From highest to lowest, the initial ranking was as follows:
teaching abroad
international grants
Once this ranking was completed, the second task involved establishing two groups where the
degree of international academic capital between the two could be easily distinguished:
teaching abroad
international grants
internationalization depends on the quantity and length of his or her academic interactions.
This academic capital is not presumed a priori in the dimensions grouped in the category of
low international academic capital and these dimensions do not depend on prior accumulation
This second step allowed these dimensions to be quantified with a numerical value
regarding the weight the international academic capital a scholar has accumulated over time.
The publication of articles in foreign journals figures in the set of dimensions that do
not require prior international academic capital, that is, social capital in international relations.
It is important to note that the “quality” of these journals is not examined in this analysis, as
the focus is only on how scholars internationalize their academic career by publishing articles
in foreign journals. This is the most widespread internationalization strategy of all the
dimensions analyzed: 98% of the target population has published at least one article in a
foreign journal. For this reason, if we had assigned a low score to this dimensions (as we did
with other dimensions that require little in terms of academic capital), we were at risk of
would have led us to minimize the importance of the most frequent internationalization
strategy in the academic careers of the Argentine sociologists in the study. To avoid this, we
decided to give this dimension considerable weight when drafting the typology. This
dimension—along with the publishing of books abroad—was thus assigned the highest score.
In both cases, the idea was to prioritize the internationalization tactics with the
greatest impact on the academic renown associated with these scholar’s products (i.e. books
After assigning scores to these dimensions, the next step involved assigning a different
measure based on the number of times each appeared in the career paths of the agents. For
this score, we observed the frequency of each of the dimensions in order to create an ordinal
scale:
1. Publication of books abroad: 19 points = [(4 times or more=19) (3=17) (2=15) (1=13) (0=0)]
3. Teaching abroad: 15 points = [(4 times or more=15) (3=13) (2=11) (1=9) (0=0)]
7. Visiting scholar experiences: 5 points = [(3 times or more=5) (2=3) (1=1) (0=0)]
internationalization type. The segment division was based on the observation of clear trends
and on the need for a sufficient number of cases for analysis. Initially, the outline consisted of
five internationalization segments (very high, high, intermediate, low and very low). There
were clear patterns of internationalization in all five but the number of cases in each segment
was low. For this reason, we decided to regroup into three categories: low (0-21 points),
intermediate (21-40 points) and high internationalization (41-80 points).
Finally, we decided to leave out earning a doctorate abroad as one of the typology
dimensions. This decision was based on the fact that one of the research questions aimed to
determine how a doctorate earned abroad impacted the agents’ career paths. By excluding
study abroad from the typology, we were able to measure its incidence when assigning agents
i
Born in Rome, Gino Germani came to Argentina in 1934 after spending time in jail for “anti-fascist
activities” (Germani 2004). He started the first degree program in sociology in Argentina and was an
important figure in Argentina’s intellectual renaissance during the 1950s and 1960s. His studies on social
structure, Peronism, mass immigration and social mobility are essential to understanding the social and
political history of modern Argentina.
ii
See the special edition of Current Sociology, 2014.
iii
In Argentina, a doctorate has become mandatory for academic positions in the social sciences in recent
years. Given that many sociology scholars do not hold the highest academic degree—doctoral programs
in the social sciences only date back to the 1990s—this requirement clearly limits the population of
sociologists qualified for careers in academia.
iv
France’s status as the most coveted destination for this level of studies may have to do with
recommendations of the principal "mentors" in sociology degree programs, most of whom are partial to
the tradition of European—and especially French—sociology in terms of both their own educations and
their work styles. A significant number of these sociologists completed their graduate studies in France
and held some of the top positions in the most prestigious research areas.
v
There are several reasons for Brazil's prevalence on this circuit. First, although the Brazilians speak
Portuguese, Spanish is broadly accepted in Brazil as a lingua franca of scholarly exchanges between the
two countries. Second, the institutions of Brazil have held steadier than Argentina’s over the country’s
history, yielding a graduate school system with a higher degree of intellectual power (as measured by the
number of master’s and doctoral theses the system produces) as well as institutional sway (a dense
national system of graduate school programs). The third reason is the vast selection of indexed journals in
Brazil, making the Portuguese-speaking country an attractive destination for the intellectual exports of
Argentine sociologists. Finally, over the past two decades the Argentine and Brazilian governments have
made academic exchange between the two countries state policy, providing funding for the training of
research teams, faculty exchanges, etc.
vi
The dimensions and scoring system are detailed in the appendix.
vii
This chart compares the country where the doctorate was earned for each category in the typology of
internationalization, dividing the population into cohorts based on the year they graduated.
viii
This chart compares the percentages of the seven international activities for each category in the
typology of internationalization and for the entire target population.
ix
This chart compares the percentages of each category in the typology of internationalization based on
the country where scholars published books and journal articles.
x
According to the definition of Beigel and Salatino (2015), the “mainstream circuit” consists of journals
indexed on databases that compete for maximum scientific quality and international recognition. These
databases include Web of Science, Scopus, HAPI-UCLA, EBSCO, JSTOR and Google Scholar. A
second tier on this hierarchical ranking is occupied by open access transnational databases like DOAJ and
Dialnet. The third tier consists of open access regional databases like Scielo, Latindex and Redalyx.
xi
On this topic, see the article by Dujovne and Sorá in this volume.
xii
This chart compares the percentages of publishing houses in Argentina where members of each
category in the typology of internationalization publish their books, dividing the population into cohorts
based on the year they graduated.