Sociology Disarmed Crisis and Renewal of the Discipline after the Coup d’état

Abstract

In this article, I examine sociology’s transformation following the coup d’état of 11 September 1973. Based on the analysis of a set of texts, in which the protagonists themselves reflected on the impact of the coup and the military dictatorship, I reconstruct, from a critical perspective, the transformations that took place in the academic field, as well as the process of renewal of the social sciences and, particularly, of sociology, paying attention to three fundamental dimensions: the role of the sociologist, the role of theory and the performative character of social science. I show how sociological renewal is, in the first place, a product of the emotional rupture generated by the coup d’état.