Unacknowledged vanguard?

GSSC Seminar Series

21 October 2025
12:00-13:00

Unacknowledged vanguard? Convivial methodologies in Latin America and its fragmented circulation

Juan Piovani (Universidad Nacional de La Plata – La Plata / Argentina)

This presentation addresses the production and circulation of methodological knowledge in Latin America, within the framework of a global academic system characterized by an unequal structure of production, publication, and circulation of knowledge, in which it occupies a relatively peripheral position. Contrary to the idea that peripheries play a merely receptive role of the knowledge—especially theoretical and methodological—produced in main international centers (primarily Europe and the United States), this presentation shows that, in Latin America, along with a critical reception of research methods, with adjustments and adaptations to local contexts, there is a rich “autonomous” tradition, especially in the fields of epistemological debates and qualitative methodology, with a strong impact on the regional academic circuit. Within this framework, this presentation highlights the Latin American contribution to research methodologies that anticipated the convivial and participatory turns on which current European developments of convivial methodology are largely based.

Juan Piovani holds a PhD in Methodology of the Social Sciences (Sapienza Università di Roma, 2005) and a MSc in Advanced Social Research Methods and Statistics (City, University of London, 1998). Currently, Juan is coordinator of the Latin American Network of Social Sciences Methodology (RedMet), Full professor of Social Research Methods (Universidad Nacional de La Plata) and director of the PhD Program in Interdisciplinary Social Studies of Europe and Latin America (Universidad Nacional de La Plata / Universität Rostock). In addition, he is Principal researcher of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and Principal investigator of MECILA.

For more information, visit: https://gssc.uni-koeln.de/en/veranstaltungen/gssc-seminar-reihe/gs-25-10-21-piovani