Resumo

ARRUDA, Maria Arminda do Nascimento. The Concept of Formation in Critical Times: Sketch of a Reflection. Sociológica (Méx.) [online]. 2017, vol.32, n.90, pp.47-68. ISSN 2007-8358.

Studies of Brazil’s historic “formation,” which have produced an emblematic stock of work, have been an ongoing object of analysis. The result is an uplifting wealth of critical material that spans different approaches, varied samples, and diverse disciplinary focuses. The interest in the topic reveals the vigorous nature of this line of thinking. The author’s fundamental proposal is to critically analyze the existing relationship between the matrix of the formation, the country’s process of modernization, and the conditions of intellectual endeavors in the periphery. In this sense, the article probes the links between analyses dedicated to reexamining the paradigm of the formation and the paths and impasses in the construction of modern Brazil. Finally, the author discusses the most recent trend in the works on the formation seen through the prism of its exhaustion, as developments in both the modernization underway in the country and in the new aspirations of groups of intellectuals.

Palavras-chave : formation of Brazil; peripheral modernization; intellectual paradigm; recent developments.