The Philanthropic Domination. Adaptions, Organizations and Intermediaries in the Latin American Reception of Weber, 1939-1979

Vortragsreihe "Wissensproduktion und Kulturtransfer im transregionalen Kontext"

Dr. Álvaro Morcillo (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica, CIDE, México) analyses the role played by US foundations in Latin American social sciences during the Cold War. The Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the Social Science Research Council decisively contributed to make US ideas about social science extremely influential, if not outright predominant. In particular, the reception of Weber’s oeuvre in Spanish was shaped by them. Parsons´s Modernization Theory superseded local, pre-existing interpretations of Weber be-cause the foundations empowered intermediaries like Gino Germani and wielded through them enormous influence locally, if not an outright – philanthropic – domination.