This book examines the circulation of knowledge within globalization, focusing on the differences between centers and peripheries of knowledge production in the social sciences. It explores not only how knowledge is appropriated in peripheral fields but also how foreign ideas shape those fields and the trajectories of scholars, and uses actor-network theory to explain circulation of knowledge as an extension of socio-technical networks that transcend borders.

This book studies the circulation of social knowledge by focusing on the reception of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory in Hispanic America. It shows that theories need active involvement from scholars in the receiving field in order to travel.