Latent Semantic Analysis of Sociologists’ Academic Contributions to Latin American Studies during the Last Twenty Years

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the influences of sociology, economics, and political science over Latin American studies. It applies a natural language processing technique called “latent semantic analysis” to measure such influences and provides a unique systematic evidence of the relationship among academic disciplines. Latent semantic analysis uncovers shifting influences of the three disciplines over Latin American studies during the period between 1990 and 2012. This paper argues that the rise and fall of the influence of political science and economics can be explained by salient political and economic issues which Latin American countries had encountered at each historical juncture. It also claims that the unique patterns of sociological influence over Latin American studies reflect the distinctive characteristics of sociology as a discipline. Latent semantic analysis will open up a new field of research for the social scientists and area specialists.