The World Paradigm: A New Proposal for Sociology

Abstract

In this article, I advance the formulation of a paradigm whose components have arisen inorganically in the sociological field in the Western Hemisphere since the beginning of the 21st century. This intellectual corpus, which I call the “World Paradigm” (WP), contains a scientific device structured on the basis of the dialectic between three principles: globalization, localization and historicization. The WP also has a critical and a political device, which, activated by the scientific device, would make it possible to recreate a dynamic designed to renew sociology’s commitment to social change. I present the central elements comprising the WP, distinguishing them from the levers supporting the already consolidated modern and postmodern paradigms. These systemic structures create both enduring patterns of inequality and state systems of classification and can raise questions about the people whom the state classifies into the categories we use. I conclude with a brief analysis of the benefits that could arise from expanding our theoretical repertoires through the inclusion of knowledge produced in the Global South.