Florestan Fernandes' critical social theory

Abstract

As part of a research agenda that seeks to highlight the theoretical potential of Brazilian social thought, this article aims to systematize the elements that allow us to conceive of Florestan Fernandes' work as a critical social theory. The methodological strategy consisted of rereading Florestan's work through the lens of contemporary social theory and its self-definition. As a result of this rereading, I demonstrate how the sociologist responded, from the periphery of capitalism, to fundamental concerns of social theory. In the first section, I address his efforts to theoretically synthesize the comprehensive, functionalist, and dialectical methods, as well as his critical reception of concepts from Weber, Marx, and Durkheim to consider the specificities of dependent capitalism. In the second section, I address the explicit treatment and reformulations of the categories of social change, social action, and social order in his work. In the third section, dedicated to final considerations, I propose the generalization of autocratic forms of power exercise as a synthesis of Florestan's diagnosis of his time from the 1970s onwards, with relevance for thinking about our present time. The critical nature of Florestan's social theory is explicit not only because of his emphatic commitment to the wretched of the earth and the emancipatory interests that guide his research, but also because of his dialogical engagement with the subjects he researched.