The article comments on the studies that analyze the Brazilian social formation according to the theoretical paradigm of personalism, emphasizing the debate with Roberto Da Matta's dual sociology. From a metatheoretical point of view, it criticizes the supposition, often implicit, of a unilateral and indifferent concept of Western modernity that makes possible the definition of Brazil as the "Other" within modernity. From a more properly defined theoretical point of view, it criticizes the lack of a theory concerning social stratification, which could promote an adequate comprehension of the interaction between values and their institutionalization. The second part of the article suggests an alternative interpretation from Da Matta's in which it considers some neglected aspects of his analyses that would allow us to perceive the relationship between backwardness and modernity as well as the coexistence between the real possibility of social ascendancy and marginalization, which has been a characteristic of Brazilian society. The alternative concept proposed to explain the dynamics of the Brazilian development is "selective modernity", which would possess, historically, a class dynamics departing from a differential appropriation of European influence and values.
Sociology of the personalism; Damattian sociology; Selective modernization; Brazilian dilemma; Dual citizenship