Functional differentiation and the sociology of Brazilian modernity

Authors

  • Roberto Dutra Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2016v15n34p77

Abstract

Sociological interpretations of Brazil, guided by the concepts of “personalism and “patrimonialism”, develop a diagnosis that we have a “modernity deficit “and infer this deficit largely of an alleged missing or imperfect process of differentiation of social spheres and subsystems among us. Currently, this type of interpretation has been updated with the theory of functional differentiation of Niklas Luhmann. In this paper we will try to show that this type of sociological interpretation is based on an idealization of differentiation of spheres in the North Atlantic countries, building an empirically unfounded counterpoint to diagnose the lack of functional differentiation in Brazil.

Author Biography

Roberto Dutra, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro

Professor Associado da Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF). Doutor em sociologia
pela Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.

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Published

2016-12-22

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 34 (2016)

Section

Special Issue 1 - Sociology and sociologists in Latin America: research, teaching, and interdisciplinarity in contemporary context

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