{"id":2173,"date":"2025-11-26T10:35:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T09:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/?page_id=2173"},"modified":"2025-12-01T15:04:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:04:42","slug":"a-southern-perspective-on-actes-no-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/a-southern-perspective-on-actes-no-3\/","title":{"rendered":"A Southern Perspective on\u00a0Actes"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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For Afr\u00e2nio Garcia, in memoriam<\/span><\/em><\/p>

Gustavo Sor\u00e1<\/strong><\/h1><\/div>

Every time I write an academic paper, I try to do it in the style of Actes<\/em>. It\u2019s a form of writing that involves intellectual decisions \u2013 how to construct knowledge problems and offer explanations. This style has a material imprint. It\u2019s visually recognizable in its intensive use of images, interview excerpts, tables, graphs, spatial diagrams, and so on. Most frequently, it employs framing devices (encadr\u00e9s)<\/em> that can take the form of sub- or hypertexts or links, and comments that allow for the integration of specific themes or interpretive connections. Actes <\/em>reveals what dominant academic rules conceal: the obstacles to constructing knowledge problems, the value placed on empirical operations, and above all, the transcendence of\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 textual constraint as the sole support for ideas. All of this foregrounds practices prior to writing, the conditions of possibility for research in the social sciences, and writing itself as a craft.<\/span><\/p>

There\u2019s no doubt that Actes<\/em> was a great laboratory for Bourdieu and his closest collaborators to develop a truly reflexive sociology. This statement invites us to question a paradox: in the social sciences of the current century, the demand for an authorial voice is commonplace, reflexivity seems to be a fad, and digital technology encourages breaking with the monotony of printed text and employing multiple communicative strategies. Nevertheless, currently, it is increasingly common to read narcissistic essays written with impulses contrary to those proposed by Actes<\/em>. Both the review of Actes’<\/em>history and the challenge of writing in accordance with its tradition are acts of rebellion against the dominant intellectual and academic order: that is what this great journal conveys.<\/span><\/p>

We could say that the imprint of this journal is recognizable in its style of thought, writing, and textual and editorial organization, elements whose combination resulted from at least three factors. The first is a historical factor, marked by the time in which it was implemented and during which it had that generative effect. The second is an intellectual factor, which prioritized the selection or invitation of authors and editors for thematic issues. Finally, there is a social factor: the formation of a \u201csociety of thought,\u201d a network of people from multiple disciplinary and national origins who gained recognition through the journal, and for whom Actes<\/em> was and is the material emblem par excellence of the collective work fostered by Pierre Bourdieu. The dynamics of this collaborative work are then essential to fully understand the evolution of the intellectual projects of the journal’s founder. If, until 2002, Bourdieu’s community materialized in Actes<\/em>, there is much to ponder regarding the place of other authors of the journal in the transnational academic space and their effects on the ways in which Bourdieu’s \u0153uvre<\/em> is transmitted. I would like to address these dimensions through a personal experience that, in some ways, illustrates the channels opened by Actes<\/em> and by Bourdieu’s work in the Southern Cone of Latin America.<\/span><\/p>

At the genesis of my relationship with this journal was an institution, the social anthropology graduate programme of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro (PPGAS), and a person, Afr\u00e2nio Garcia (1948\u20132024), who supervised my doctoral (1998) and master\u2019s (1994) theses. An economist, anthropologist, and a keen, rigorous, and committed intellectual, Afr\u00e2nio was an extraordinary person. His long history of scientific training and activity in Paris, and since the mid-1980s as a member of the Cent<\/em>re de sociologie de l\u2019\u00e9ducation et de la culture<\/em> (CSEC), was shared with me \u2014 to the point of introducing me to his international scientific network \u2014 with a keen awareness of our peripheral position (Gheorghiu, 2018).<\/span><\/p>

In all the courses at the Museum, more than half of the reading lists were in English and French. French was the predominant language in the bibliography of professors like Afr\u00e2nio, Moacir Palmeira or Jos\u00e9 Sergio Leite Lopes and the articles in Actes<\/em> were the most frequently referenced. The entire collection of Actes<\/em> was available at the library, with a valuable tool: a folder containing photocopied indexes of all the issues. When one went to print an Actes<\/em> article for a class, one could freely select others, not necessarily complementary to the required reading. When one was choosing an area of specialization, entire issues could be photocopied.<\/span><\/p>

In the late 1980s, almost every Argentinian student in the social and human sciences was reading Bourdieu. It was the result of a relatively early reception of an author then mostly perceived as a social theorist (the main reference was El oficio de soci\u00f3logo<\/em>) sometimes with ideological accents, as \u201cGramsci con Bourdieu,\u201d the title of a 1984 article by N\u00e9stor Garc\u00eda Canclini, can suggest (Baranger, 2008; Sor\u00e1, 2023). In contrast, in the 1990s those Brazilian professors taught us early on that Bourdieu\u2019s work was, above all, empirically rooted, collective and transnational. From primary sources, we learned about the ins and outs of each Centre de sociologie europ\u00e9enne <\/em>(CSE) production, the backstage aspects, and the ramifications of the research radiating from the Parisian center. These productions were tools for empirical research.<\/span><\/p>

From the early 1990s, my knowledge of the journal was mediated by personal acquaintance with many of its authors, almost all of them researchers from the CSE\/CSEC. Brazil was the only country in Latin America where this was possible (Mota Rocha 2022). The PPGAS was an international academic center where we could meet great foreign authors in person. From the Bourdieusian circle, I remember Abdelmalek Sayad, Jean-Pierre Faguer, Jean-Claude Combessie, Monique de Saint Martin, Roger Chartier, Christian Baudelot, Lo\u00efc Wacquant, Beno\u00eet de l\u2019Estoile, Anne-Marie Thiesse, Gis\u00e8le Sapiro, Franck Poupeau, and others. They are evidence of the scientific policy constructed by my reference professors and the type of interlocutors they favoured. Those of us who were really interested in that way of doing social science were then appropriating the rudiments of a scientific habitus.<\/span><\/p>

After completing my master\u2019s thesis \u2013 an ethnography of the international book fairs in Rio de Janeiro and S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Afr\u00e2nio suggested that I send a copy to Roger Chartier. In 1996, two years later, he instructed me to send Bourdieu my second article, an analysis of the publishing and reception of the work of Gilberto Freyre, a central figure in the canon of Brazilian social thought (Garcia, Sor\u00e1 and Rivron, 2026). Bourdieu\u2019s reply was generous regarding my work, which he read in Portuguese through his Spanish-language lens. Through Afr\u00e2nio, Bourdieu learned of my work on fairs. I then wrote an article (\u201cLa maison et l\u2019entreprise. Jos\u00e9 Olympio et l\u2019\u00e9volution de l\u2019\u00e9dition br\u00e9silienne\u201d) in the issue 126\u2013127 of Actes<\/em> (\u00c9dition, \u00e9diteurs I<\/em> \u2013 March 1999). It represented a pinnacle of my scientific career. Shortly before Bourdieu\u2019s death, I was invited to contribute to one of the two 2002 issues edited by Johan Heilbron and Gis\u00e8le Sapiro. My second article in Actes<\/em>, \u201cUn \u00e9change d\u00e9ni\u00e9. La traduction d\u2019auteurs br\u00e9siliens en Argentine,\u201d appeared in issue 145, dedicated to La circulation internationale des id\u00e9es.<\/em><\/span><\/p>

I had recently returned to my country. In a very difficult time, I was able to join Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas y T\u00e9cnicas<\/em> (CONICET) as a researcher and the National University of C\u00f3rdoba as a teacher. In Brazil, an article in Actes<\/em> was as valuable as an entire book in a foreign language (Mota Rocha, 2022). This wasn\u2019t the case in Argentina. In my first \u00e9chec<\/em> for promotion at CONICET, my second article in Actes<\/em> was graded like any other article in a local journal. However, at my new university, Alicia Guti\u00e9rrez was doing sustained work interpreting, translating, and teaching Bourdieu. We couldn\u2019t mobilize the reading of French texts as we did in Brazil. Spanish, as a powerful but peripheral language, entails the task of constant translation, and the university social sciences and humanities environment tends to reject the reading of bibliographies in other languages. If this hadn\u2019t been the case, there wouldn\u2019t have been any Actes<\/em> issues available, except for the few in the possession of isolated subscribers \u2013 such as Denis Baranger, a central mediator \u2013 and a couple of copies in Buenos Aires research centers.<\/span><\/p>

I then decided to start a publishing strategy. I translated some articles from Actes<\/em> and edited them in the Revista del Museo de Antropolog\u00eda<\/em>. I remember two in particular: \u201cLa disparition de la \u2018joie du peuple\u2019\u201d by Jos\u00e9 Sergio Leite Lopes and Sylvain Maresca, and \u201cLes paysans \u00e0 la plage\u201d by Patrick Champagne. We wanted to use these kinds of texts in class and introduce these authors in Spanish. In the Entreculturas series at the Eduvim university press, we published books by Joseph Jurt, Yves Dezalay, Gis\u00e8le Sapiro, Anne-Catherine Wagner, and Sophie No\u00ebl, along with innovative Latin American authors. Alejandrina Falc\u00f3n, a specialist in translation studies, also told us about her plan to publish the pioneering issue of Actes<\/em> on Translation: International Literary Exchanges<\/em> (see Falc\u00f3n, 2025). In 2026, this entire issue of Actes<\/em> will be published as a book, in Spanish, by the Tren en Movimiento<\/em> publishing house in Buenos Aires.<\/span><\/p>

My relationship with Actes<\/em> and the CSE network has slowly gained ground among a constellation of colleagues who promoted the reception of Bourdieu’s work in Argentina: Carlos Altamirano, Beatriz Sarlo, Alicia Guti\u00e9rrez, Ana Teresa Mart\u00ednez, Denis Baranger, Federico Neiburg, Lucas Rubinich, Javier Auyero, and others. The emergence of Practical Sense<\/em> and its organizers\u2019 invitation to Fernanda Beigel to participate in the scientific committee propelled the formation of Espacio Bourdieu Argentina, a network of researchers who make empirical and original use of Bourdieu’s legacy (Beigel et al., 2025). These appropriations are diverse, as are the experiences of approaching Bourdieu’s work. The tenuous presence of Actes<\/em> in this country is a valuable indicator of the different ways in which these ideas are incorporated in the Southern Cone and of the principles guiding this international scientific enterprise.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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References<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p><\/div>

  • Baranger, D. (2008) \u201cThe Reception of Bourdieu in Latin America and Argentina\u201d. Sociol\u00f3gica<\/em> 2. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2383\/27724<\/span><\/li>
  • Beigel, F., Baranger, D., Guti\u00e9rrez A. (2025). \u201cPractical Sense<\/em> and the Bourdieu Space Argentina\u201d. Practical Sense<\/em> 2, pp. 70-72.<\/span><\/li>
  • Falc\u00f3n, A. (2025) \u201cEl n\u00famero 144 de Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales<\/em>: g\u00e9nesis de la sociolog\u00eda francesa de la traducci\u00f3n y su recepci\u00f3n en Argentina\u201d. Gragoat\u00e1<\/em>, 30 (68).<\/span><\/li>
  • Garcia, A., Sor\u00e1, G. and Rivron, V. (2026) \u00bfUna naci\u00f3n mestiza? La valoraci\u00f3n simb\u00f3lica del Brasil contempor\u00e1neo.<\/i> Villa Mar\u00eda: Eduvim.<\/li>
  • Gheorghiu, M. (2018) \u201cEntretien avec Afr\u00e2nio Raul Garcia Jr. Les fronti\u00e8res internationales des sciences sociales. Itin\u00e9raires d\u2019un intellectuel collectif\u201d. <\/span>Psihologia Sociala<\/em> 42 (II), pp. 21-54. <\/span><\/li>
  • Mota Rocha, M. (org.). (2022) <\/span>Bourdieu \u00e0 brasileira<\/em>. Rio de Janeiro, Confraria do vento.<\/span><\/li>
  • Sor\u00e1, G. (2023) \u201cM\u00e9diateurs et configurations sociales des usages de Bourdieu en Argentine\u201d in Garcia, A., Garcia Parpet, A., P\u00e9rez, F, Poupeau, Mota Rocha, M. (eds.). (2023) <\/span>Bourdieu et les Am\u00e9riques. Gen\u00e8ses et usages d’une internationale scientifique<\/em>, Aubervilliers, \u00c9ditions de l’IHEAL, pp. 87-112.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    For Afr\u00e2nio Garcia, in memoriam Gustavo Sor\u00e1 Every time I write an academic paper, I try to do it in the style of Actes. It\u2019s a form of writing that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2173","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2173"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2450,"href":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2173\/revisions\/2450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalsense.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}