Nicolás Lynch

Aníbal Quijano (1928-2018) has been the critical intellectual par excellence in Peru and Latin America, one who acted according to his principles. When he emerged as a sociologist in the 1960s and 1970s, criticism of the status quo was at its peak. Quijano never gave in to the siren calls of the Marxism-Leninism that reached its most barbaric expression in the Shining Path. In the 1990s, at the height of the World Bank and the International...

Nicolás Lynch is a Professor of Sociology at the National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru. He has been President of the Peruvian College of Sociologists (1998-2000) as well as Minister of Education of Peru (2001-2002), Advisor to the President of the Republic (2002) and Peruvian Ambassador to Argentina (2011-2012). With a PhD in Sociology from the New School for Social Research, New York, and an MA in Social Sciences from...

Currently, Peruvian sociology exists as a scientific discipline and as a profession. Nonetheless, it is not well institutionalized, as well as lacking recognition and influence. The development of sociology in Peru has gone through four stages: concern with social issues, sociology as a professional occupation, the deterioration of sociology in NGOs, and the return of a critical sociology. Social Concerns The concern with...