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Essayism as a Sociological Research Tradition in Brazil: a Definition of Essay and Essayism for Sociology

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Abstract

The paper discusses the form of the essay as a writing and thinking style in Sociology. By resuming some relevant German sociological writings (esp. Simmel, Weber and Elias), we explore how they are essays profoundly influenced the first Brazilian (pre) sociological writings. At the beginning of the institutionalization of Social Sciences in Brazil, we find essayists (esp. Buarque de Holanda, Freye and Prado) who wrote essential texts on the nation formation and Brazilian ethos. Its non-systematic, literary style and historical arguments join them together in what would be later called as the “Brazilian Essayism.” After these first writings, although a scientific wave flooded Brazilian Sociology, the discipline have always referred (positively or negatively) to these seminal works.

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Notes

  1. Although Thomas Kuhn was not concerned with the scientific status of disciplines, social sciences included, it is well accepted among sociologists that there is anything like the organization of hard sciences, nor any kind of paradigm for the discipline as a whole.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Veridiana Domingos Cordeiro

  2. Center for Artificial Intelligence, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Hugo Neri

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  1. Veridiana Domingos Cordeiro
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  2. Hugo Neri
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Correspondence to Veridiana Domingos Cordeiro.

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Cordeiro, V.D., Neri, H. Essayism as a Sociological Research Tradition in Brazil: a Definition of Essay and Essayism for Sociology. Am Soc 51, 267–278 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-020-09438-0

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