FROM HETEROGENEITY TO OPEN SOCIAL TOTALITY: A POTENTIAL CORE OF THEORETICAL RENEWAL

Abstract

In this paper, we will approach heuristically some of the multiple ways of conceptualizing the cultural, historical and political complexity that crosses Latin American discourses. In particular, the general objective will be to take up the contributions of Laclau (2005) and Quijano (2000, 2014) to think about their way of introducing the category of the heterogeneous in the study of the social and their conception of social totality. The hypothesis of this paper is to argue that both authors, despite coming from different registers and thus possessing different versions of the heterogeneous, share a key thesis: for the study of the social, it is necessary to think in open totalities, i.e., that the social is always crossed by contingency. This common anchor point, in turn, results in a potential nucleus of theoretical renewal capable of addressing in particular the complexities of the discursive registers of our continent.