Latino/a Sociology: Toward a New Paradigm

Abstract

Despite the proliferation of significant scholarship on Latinos/as over the past four decades and the formal establishment of a Latina/o sociology section in the American Sociological Association in 1994, Latino/a sociology has yet to be systematically defined or fully developed. This essay isolates the underlying premises that mark this developing field. Latino/a sociology is grounded in the standpoints of Latinos/as and anchors its analyses in theories of race and racialization. Latino/a sociology also transcends disciplinary boundaries, incorporating developments in intersectionality, critical race theory, and postcolonial theories. Drawing from transnational perspectives—on migration, globalization, and the experiences of borders and borderlands—Latino/a sociology remains attuned to social processes across boundaries and is oriented to social justice and human rights. Here we propose a new paradigm for Latino/a sociology that moves beyond the Black-White binary to build more comprehensive understandings of race and racialization in the twenty-first century.