Socio-structural Forces in the Development of Philippine Sociology

抄録

This paper argues that sociology's development in the country reflects the broad socio-structural features of Philippine society over time. The article will proceed by tracing the discipline's historical development and how these were anchored in the social conditions pervasive during these periods. Primary of these influences is the US colonial education of the pioneers in the discipline before and immediately after World War II. The emergence of student activism, coupled with the criticism of the modernist project, contributed to many sociologists and social scientists, who, through their research and writings, resisted Marcos' authoritarian regime in the 1970s and the 1980s. The opening of the democratic space after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution institutionalized civil society groups' participation in state affairs. Sociological theorizing and methodological approaches of the 1990s and early 2000s reflected the expansion of negotiation space between social structures and the agency of these academics. However, efforts to mainstream a more indigenized theorizing among the country's sociologists proved more difficult. The paper ends by discussing some of these challenges and the possible trajectory of the discipline.