Scholarly Communities at the Crossroads: Internationalizing Sociological Networks in Valparaíso, Chile (2003–2019)

Achievements and tensions derived from the internationalization of national scholarly communities have attracted extensive attention. However, very little is hitherto known about the effects of these processes on specific situated communities. Through a multi-method approach (bibliometrics and interviews), we provide a nuanced description of these effects on the becoming of university-based sociology in Valparaíso, Chile, during the last fifteen or so years. The paper pays special attention to the emergence of a particular form of internationalization based on international indexes and rankings that has gained influence on the day-to-day practices of the scholarly communities in that part of the scholarly (semi-)periphery. We thoroughly described the entanglements of individual trajectories and institutional framings in the practices and discourses of sociologists in Valparaíso. The article concludes by highlighting the tensions arising from the encounter of traditions and some trade-offs of the current form of internationalization for (semi-)peripheral communities.