Social Sciences Methodology Development in Latin America: Theoretical Positions and Social Projects

The methodology of the social sciences is often conceptualized as a disciplinary field equipped with its own internal logic. This article shows that in spite of this, when examining methodological disputes (and theoretical as well) that have taken place in Latin America in the last sixty years shows that have been influenced by political struggles to impose alternative social projects. Politics, theory and methodology have been closely intertwined. It is argued that until the late sixties methodology was equivalent to survey techniques. In the seventies and part of the eighties there was a concern to understand the structural change with a strong Marxist epistemology accent. Following the crisis of the eighties and the consequent budgetary restrictions on academic research there has been a tendency to limit the methodology to a set of research tools and techniques, and discuss concepts detached form their theoretical bodies, hiding the diversity of approaches and policy proposals.