N. 74 (2026): Enero-abril
Filosofía en el espacio público

Institutions, Agency, and Change: Latin American Controversies

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  • Sebastián Alejandro González Montero,
  • Catalina López Gómez,
  • Ana Mercedes Sarria,
  • Jerónimo Manuel Sierra
Sebastián Alejandro González Montero
Universidad de La Salle

Pubblicato 2025-12-07

Parole chiave

  • structuration processes,
  • institutions,
  • communities,
  • habit,
  • agency,
  • realist ontology,
  • Latin America,
  • social movements,
  • social constructionism,
  • Dave Elder-Vass
    • ...Più
    Meno

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Come citare

González Montero, S. A., López Gómez, C., Sarria, A. M., & Sierra, J. M. (2025). Institutions, Agency, and Change: Latin American Controversies. Tópicos. Revista De Filosofía, 74, 463-496. https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v740.3144
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Abstract

Based on theories of realist ontology, moderate social constructionism, and rethinking social movements, this article explores the interplay between institutions and communities within the contemporary social structuration perspective. We highlight the role of habits not just as constraint mechanisms but also as enablers of action and change. The central idea is that institutions originate in habits and patterned influences: institutions and agency shape each other, which challenges the conventional notion that institutions exist independently of agency and depend on centralized leadership and the state. Understanding institutions is more than just understanding how people interpret pre-existing normative frameworks: since institutions are formed by collective practice, they are not transcendental regarding communities. We also explore the idea that instead of providing a snapshot of individuals pressuring the state to adopt reforms, describing communitarian trajectories and collective efforts to promote differentiation processes is necessary to reach a nuanced comprehension of social movements. We contextualize that idea in recent debates in Latin America about mobilization and social struggles. Ultimately, we conclude that becoming different does not mean claiming state power or presenting oneself as a representative of the people. To understand reality change and a social movement’s role, one must consider renovated conceptual and methodological tools to avoid empirical simplification and causality reduction of contingent practices and communitarian compositions. 

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