This article deals with the position of the Southern sociologies within the discipline. The role and presence of local, national and regional scholarly communities has been widely reflected on in the context of the discussion around internationalization or globalization of the discipline. Thus, a variety of critiques of 'Eurocentrism', or more precisely, 'North Atlantic domination', have arisen in recent years that can be strengthened by empirical evidence of strong inequalities and distorted communication mechanisms within sociology at an international level. What has been largely missing so far is the demonstration of viable alternatives to North Atlantic domination, as well as enquiries into the conditions of their emergence. This article offers a different perspective by highlighting counterhegemonic currents emerging out of the South despite the peripheral position, i.e. by drawing attention towards challenging scholarly communities and their output that have not received much, if any, attention in the discussions so far. keywords: counterhegemony ✦ globalization ✦ history of sociology ✦ sociological theory ✦ sociology of the social sciences

International audienceThe development of sociology in Africa and Latin America has remained largelyunder-researched until now. Ongoing debates on the globalisation of economy andsociety, as well as the increasingly cross-national activities of the scholarlycommunity, have been enhancing reflections on the internationalisation orglobalisation of the discipline, a topic on the agenda of each of the more recentWorldCongresses of Sociology. Diverging perceptions of these processes within sociologyhave been articulated, opposing those who argue for the internationalisation orglobalisation of the discipline without explicitly insisting on present North-Southdivides (Albrow/King 1990; Archer 1991; Genov 1991) on the one hand, and thosewho insist on the disadvantaged position of, for instance, African (Adésínà 2002) orIndian (Oommen 1991) sociologies, on the other hand. The debate around theglobalisation of sociology, political and often polemical at first sight, illustrates theincreasingly difficult articulation between the universalistic claims of the discipline assuch and its particular developments locally or nationally (Berthelot 1998; Keim2006), and is thus of epistemological importance as well

Empirical studies have recently pointed towards a socio-structural category largely overlooked in social inequality research: the dynamic positions of households adjacent to those of the poor and yet not representing those of the established, more prosperous positions in society. These results suggest that the population in this category fluctuates into and out of poverty more often than moving into and out of secure prosperity. This category -still lacking theoretical conceptualization -is characterized by both precariousness and a certain degree of prosperity; despite a restricted and uncertain living standard it holds a range of opportunities for action. We seek analytical elements to conceptualize 'precarious prosperity' for comparative empirical research by subjecting various concepts of social inequality research to critical scrutiny. We then operationally define 'precarious prosperity' to screen for this population in three countries. Based on qualitative interviews with households in precarious prosperity, we present first analyses of perceptions and household strategies that underline the relevance of the concept in different countries.

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In recent years, the articulation between the common core of the discipline and its local manifestations has become increasingly problematic. It might seem paradoxical that calls for more local sociologies appear at the very time of globalization. However, I argue that this double move — the internationalization of the scholarly community on the one hand and the localization of specific claims on the other — is not as ironic as it first appears. On the contrary, it has its foundations in the very history of the discipline, in the realities of its worldwide spreading, and in the forms of its international constitution that are marked by hierarchies and inequalities, especially with regard to South-North-relations. Résumé. Récemment, l’articulation entre le corpus commun de la discipline d’un côté et ses manifestations locales de l’autre côté se trouve remise en question. Il peut paraître paradoxal que les revendications de sociologies plus « locales » émergent simultanément au processus de mondialisation. Toutefois, j’argumenterai que ce double mouvement vers l’internationalisation de la communauté scientifique d’un côté, et la localisation de ses réalisations spécifiques de l’autre côté, n’est pas aussi ironique que cela puisse paraître à première vue. Au contraire, il semble que ces développements récents trouvent leur origine dans l’histoire même de la discipline, dans les réalités de son expansion globale et dans les formes de sa constitution internationale qui sont marquées par des hiérarchies et des inégalités profondes, surtout en ce qui concerne les relations Sud-Nord.

Knowledge has increasingly become an essential resource in the global economy, hence the capitalist tendency to regard it as a form of capital and as a motor for innovation and profit. Like any other capitalist commodity, conflicts over the ownership and use of various types of knowledge have arisen, thereby calling for legal protection. Nation‐states as well as inter‐state organisms are developing these legal frameworks in order to regulate the conflicts between different social actors. Consequently, thinking on knowledge and power has evolved to include the protection of knowledge from those who seek to gain control of it through the acquisition of legal rights, for instance, intellectual property (IP) rights. In many commercialised industrialised countries, legal frameworks have already been developed to protect IP. These include patents and copyrights as well as other trademarks, database rights and so on. However, in many developing countries with a weak technological base and less commercialisation IP protection mechanisms have not yet become firmly established. This is happening even though they have genetic resources and traditional knowledge that are of value to them and to the world at large. The protection of indigenous knowledge has existed as long as the knowledge itself, but the recognition of such mechanisms has been tightly controlled by stronger powers. In this article we argue that, whatever local communities choose to do to protect their indigenous knowledge, in the context of the current IP regime and the power of commercially driven global actors, the concept of traditional or indigenous knowledge itself becomes political. If the traditionality of knowledge can be reasonably questioned from an epistemological point of view, it would seem possible to claim rights and recognition for local communities in a highly controversial and economically relevant international arena.

RÉSUMÉCet article a pour objet les inégalités et les hiérarchies globales dans la production et la diffusion des connaissances sociologiques dans une perspective Sud-Nord. Il propose un modèle centre-péri-phérie pour appréhender ces inégalités. L'explication de l'inégale distribution doit avoir en premier lieu un caractère historique : les sciences sociales modernes ont émergé d'abord en Europe. Leur origine exogène dans les pays du Sud pose encore aujourd'hui des problèmes à plusieurs niveaux. La conceptualisation proposée d'un modèle centre-périphérie permet d'en distinguer analytiquement trois dimensions : la dimension de l'infrastructure et de l'organisation interne qui reste fortement déterminée par des facteurs extrascientifi ques, alors que les dimensions des conditions d'existence et de reproduction ainsi que de la position et de la reconnaissance internationale se réfèrent avant tout à des problèmes intrascientifi ques. Quant à cette dernière dimension, quelques indicateurs empiriques sont présentés. S'il paraît adéquat d'établir un modèle centre-périphérie pour appréhender les structures internationales en sociologie, il est d'autant plus important de terminer sur un ton plus optimiste, en signalant que divers développements lancent aujourd'hui un défi à l'hégémonie historique des approches nord-atlantiques.MOTS CLÉS : Sociologie internationale -Histoire des sciences sociales -Relations Nord-Sud -Centre-Périphérie -Développement scientifi que -Contre-hégémonie -Eurocentrisme Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances -2010/3 570

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