Dados is one of the most widely-read social sciences journals in Latin America. Created in 1966, it publishes innovative works, originating from academic research, by Brazilian and foreign authors. Edited by IESP-UERJ, it aims to reconcile scientific rigor and academic excellence with an emphasis on public debate based on the analysis of substantive issues of society and politics.
Dados vol. 56 n. 2 Rio de Janeiro abr./jun. 2013
Abstract
Amid rapid social changes in Brazil in the 1950s, wide-reaching collective research projects in the social sciences were conducted in partnership between Brazilian and international agencies working in regional development. Cooperation between social scientists and government staff was based on the expectation that social and anthropological studies would orient the changes then under way. By approaching the research program in the São Francisco River Valley, the article examines a turning point in the career of sociologist Donald Pierson, combining analyses of context and content in his intellectual production. Pierson concentrated initially on the institutionalization of the social sciences in Brazil, promoting a standard of sociological work based on scientific research. In his research in the São Francisco River Valley, Pierson adopted a new approach by combining the sociologists role as scientist with that of agent of social change, thereby highlighting the importance of the application of sociological knowledge in practice.
Keywords: Donald Pierson, São Francisco River Valley Project, development, community studies, social change, history of the Social Sciences in Brazil
DOI: 10.1590/S0011-52582013000200001
Donald Pierson and the São Francisco River Valley Project: social scientists in action in the age of development
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