Book Review. Immanuel Wallerstein. 1996. Open the Social Sciences, Siglo XXI Editores, Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Sciences and Humanities, UNAM.

Abstract

The topic addressed in this review deals with the origin of the social sciences, their institutionalization process in the academic world, and the challenges they face in a globalized world with a transdisciplinary logic, highlighting certain criticisms that characterized them until the 1960s and 1970s and the new trends that emerged in other parts of the world outside the United States and Europe. The author’s theoretical approach is based on social theory, using a critical perspective on the origin, institutionalization, and challenges of social science for the 21st century. The book aims to provide an in-depth reflection on global issues and problems whose consideration and solution were essential for the common future of society. The text is divided into four main sections that discuss the problem of the social sciences, from their emergence to their consolidation in 1945 to the present day, and the different challenges facing their expansion and how to address the different problems of the disciplines. It also offers a critique of the subsequent development of the social sciences in terms of their collaboration with other sciences and a critique of the Eurocentrism with which they were born