Revisiting German: An interpretation of modernity and the theory of action

The work of Italian-German sociologist Gino Germani has traditionally been classified as functionalist. However, recent studies have tended to change this perspective, emphasizing other important influences in his work. Against the backdrop of his broader theory, the objective of this article is to analyze, on the one hand, his perception, in the Latin American transition to modernity, of freedom as the essential issue in politics and daily life, and on the other, how this translates into a theory of action that remains overlooked, although only recently have equivalents been found in Sociology, with his theory being more advanced in certain aspects than contemporary proposals in this direction.