Alejandro Grimson is Full Professor of Contemporary Anthropological Theories at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín and is a Senior Researcher at CONICET (Argentina). At the Universidad Nacional de San Martín he has been Director of the PhD in Social Anthropology and Director of the Doctoral College and Dean of the Institute of Higher Social Studies at UNSAM between 2005 and 2014. He obtained the Latin American Studies Association Award for the Best Ibero-American Book in 2012 for "The Limits of Culture", the FELAFACS Award for the best thesis in Communication and the Bernardo Houssay Award granted to researchers by the Argentine State. Between March 2017 and February 2020 he was Regional Director of CALAS Southern Cone and Brazil, a position he left when he was nominated presidential advisor during the Argentine government of Alberto Fernandez. 

Publications

Books (selection):

2023 (con Menara Guizardi y Silvina Merenson, Coord.). Middle Class Identities and Social Crisis. Cultural and Political Perspectives on the “Global Rebellion”, Londres y Nueva York, Routledge, 

2022 (con Nahuel Sosa y Mercedes Patriolleu). Argentina Futura. Un horizonte posible y deseable, Buenos Aires, Jefatura de Gabinete de Ministros.

2019. ¿Qué es el peronismo? De Perón a los Kirchner, el movimiento que no deja de conmover a la política argentina. México: Siglo veintiuno editores. 

2018. Estudios sobre diversidad sociocultural en la Argentina contemporánea. Coordinador con Gabriela Karasik. CLACSO y Consejo de Decanos de Facultades de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, en prensa.

2016. Mitomanías de los sexos. Co-autor con Eleonor Faur. Buenos Aires, Siglo XXI.

2015. Antología del pensamiento crítico argentino contemporáneo. Compilador con Sergio Caggiano. Buenos Aires, CLACSO.

2014. Mitomanías de la educación argentina. Crítica de las frases hechas, las medias verdades y las soluciones mágicas. Co-autor con Emilio Tenti Fanfani. Buenos Aires, Siglo XXI.

2014. Culturas políticas y políticas culturales. Compilador. Buenos Aires, CLACSO y Ediciones Boll Cono Sur.

2013. Hegemonía cultural y políticas de la diferencia. Compilador con Karina Bidaseca. Buenos Aires, CLACSO.

2012. Mitomanías Argentinas. Como hablamos de nosotros mismos. Buenos Aires, Siglo XXI.

 

Selected articles in journals and book chapters:

2020 (con Menara Guizardi). "Migration in the Southern Cone." En: Tanja Bastia y Ronald Skeldon (coords.): Routledge Handbook for Migration and Development. London: Routledge.

2018. “Argentina y sus crisis.” en Nueva Sociedad, enero-febrero (273). 44-54.

2017. “Social and Cultural Diversity in Argentina”, en Global Dialogue, 7.4, December.

2017. “Raza y clase en los orígenes del peronismo: Argentina, 1945.” En: Desacatos. Revista de Antropología Social, septiembre-diciembre (55). 110-127.

2017. "Heterogeneidad y homogeneidad obrera en los orígenes del peronismo." En: Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana “Dr. Emilio Ravignani”, (47). 

2016. “Rückkehr des Neoliberalismus in Argentinien: Ursachen und Perspektiven.” En: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, (39). 15-20. (Agencia Federal para la Educación Política, Alemania).

2016. “Desafíos para las antropologías desde el sur.” En Intervenciones en estudios culturales (3). 139-153.

2016. Gustavo Ng; Luciana Denardi y Alejandro Grimson: “Las organizaciones de inmigrantes chinos en Argentina.” En: Migración y desarrollo, 14 (26). 25-73.

2016. “Space, urban borders, and political imagination in Buenos Aires.” En: Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, 11, (1). 25-45. 

2015. “Crisis y alteridad en las configuraciones culturales.” En: Etnografías Contemporáneas, (1). 140-160.

2015. “Percepciones sociales de la desigualdad, la distribución y la redistribución de ingresos.” En: Lavboratorio, (26). 197-224. 

2014. “Comunicación y configuraciones culturales.” En: Versión. Estudios de comunicación y política, (34). 116-125.

2013. “Caminando sobre el pasado: una etnografía del secreto y el miedo.” En PUBLICAR en Antropología y Ciencias Sociales, (14). 9-30.

2013. “Perché le frontiere della cultura non coincidono con quelle dell”identità” Prospettive teoriche dall’America latina.” En: Scienza & Politica. 45-63. 

2011. “Desajustes entre nível de renda e hierarquias simbólicas em Comodoro Rivadavia. Sobre as legitimidades da desigualdade social.” En: MANA - ESTUDOS DE ANTROPOLOGIA SOCIAL, 17 (2). 50-70.

2011. “Doce equívocos sobre las migraciones.” En: Nueva Sociedad (233). 34-43.

2010. “Culture and identity: two different notions.” En: Social Identities 16 (1). 61-77.

2009. “Changing Articulations of Class and Ethnicity: A Villa Miseria in Buenos Aires.” En: BWPI Working Papers (94). 1-26.

2008. “The Making of New Urban Borders: Neoliberalism and Protest in Buenos Aires.” En: Antipode. Journal of Radical Geography, 40 (4). 504-512-.

2006. “Cultures are more Hybrid than Identifications. A Dialogue on Borders from the Southern Cone.” En: Journal of Latino Studies, 2006 (4). 96-119.

 

Research project as a fellow of CALAS (senior fellow).

Title: Crisis and Collapse of Democracy. Comparative perspectives and a case study

Abstract: Extreme right-wink parties are growing in Europe, the United States and Latin America. They have reached governments and have representatives in the legislative branch. This is part of a global shift that started in 2015. This project proposes to investigate the necessary and sufficient conditions for crises of democracy and collapses of democracy. To this end, based on existing studies, comparisons will be made that include the cases of Italy and Germany between the wars (1918-1939), the coups in Brazil in 1964, in Chile 1973 and in Argentina 1976 during the height of the Cold War, and, finally, the current extreme right-wings in Europe, the United States and those in Latin America.

Five dimensions with precise variables are used for such comparisons: economic, social, political, cultural and gender. For each dimension, precise variables will be defined. It will be possible to analyze regularities, specificities and possibly establish a proposal for a typology of configurations that facilitate or drive the crisis or collapse of democracy. It is essential to avoid any naciocentric analysis or any analysis that assumes that the features of the extreme right in the North are replicated in the South. There are heterogeneities between countries, but also notorious differences between regions. 

On the other hand, the Argentine case will be studied in depth from 2021. This is a country that is celebrating 40 years of democracy, with large economic and social debts. This generates widespread social frustration. At the same time, Argentina built a democratic pact that has very solid elements. At this moment, there is a complex interaction between the pact and frustration where the social value of democracy is at stake. To study this, qualitative methodologies (interviews and focus groups) are used to: 1) understand the dynamics of the democratic pact and its tensions with the debts of democracy; 2) understand the characteristics and points of view of people who adhere to anti-democratic leaderships; 2) understand the economic, social and subjectivity dimensions that are combined in this historical situation. Quantitative studies are used as a complement.