El concepto de infraclase en Gunnar Myrdal

Abstract

This paper aims to approach the influence of the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal on the social sciences through his concept of “underclass”. The starting point is the conviction that this concept demands social science to pay clear attention to the reality it studies, and not allow economics, for instance, to intend claiming independence and moreover arguing objectivity. It must return to its origin as social science. This paper is divided into four parts. In the first one we see how sociology arrives and takes the concept of “underclass” from Myrdal; in the second exposes synthetically the debate of social thought on this concept; the third lays out the structural points of Myrdal’s method, from the economics approach, and, finally, we pose some general conclusions on the actuality of this Swedish thinker.