Abstract

RODRIGUEZ, Martha. Sociability networks, survival and intellectual work: CLACSO's role and its bulletin David and Goliath during the last Argentinian dictatorship. Rev. hist. Am. [online]. 2022, n.163, pp.365-388.  Epub Feb 27, 2024. ISSN 2663-371X.  https://doi.org/10.35424/rha.163.2022.1233.

The dictatorships that ravaged Argentina during the 1960s and 1970s produced a profound restructuring of the universities and the scientific and technological research system. With their research and teaching activities decimated, public institutions suffered the closure of their academic spaces, defunding and ideological persecution.

In contrast to this panorama which characterised a large part of the public academic environment, a considerable number of private institutions dedicated to social science research developed during the 1960s ―and even with more momentum from the mid-1970s onwards―. These became an alternative to the extreme instability and repression of the public sphere. Most of these centres functioned as a kind of intellectual refuge for a not insignificant number of economists, sociologists, political scientists and historians who found a space of protection and relative autonomy. This phenomenon brought about changes in the ways of doing social sciences in the region, thematic, theoretical and methodological openings, as well as fluid dialogues with other national contexts.

The Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO), which has always been based in Buenos Aires, stood out among these institutions for its regional multi-site presence, its institutional strength and that of its several member centres, its funding capacity as well as the protection it received from international organisations and agencies. Throughout this article we will analyse the activities carried out by CLACSO during the last dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983). We will do so on the basis of a study of their publication titled David and Goliath. CLACSO Bulletin, the main source of our research. It quickly became the main means of disseminating activities as well as a space for reflection, critical analysis and coordination among Latin American intellectuals.

Keywords : Social Science Research Centres; CLACSO; intellectuals; academics; Argentinian military dictatorship.

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