History of sociology and the quest for intellectual autonomy in the Global South: The cases of Alberto Guerreiro Ramos and Syed Hussein Alatas

Abstract

History of sociology is one of the main fields within the broader area of social science research. Despite its growing methodological sophistication, the field still lacks a truly global approach, one that takes into account alternative sociological traditions, particularly those from the so-called Global South. This article seeks to address these shortcomings by proposing a case study comparison between two sociologists from the Global South who developed similar sociological discourses between the 1950s and 1970s and pursued intellectual autonomy. These were the Brazilian Alberto Guerreiro Ramos (1915–1982) and the Malaysian Syed Hussein Alatas (1927–2008). The article analyzes the main works of Ramos and Alatas and compares their trajectories as well. It is argued that the sociological discourses in the Global South are best explained through a transnational analysis that pays close attention to the conditions of intellectual labor and the quest for intellectual autonomy in this area. It is also argued that the field of history of sociology should take into account these alternative discourses in order to avoid Eurocentrism.