As part of a broader research about the sequences of political sociology in Brazil, the article stress the sociological work of Maria Sylvia de Carvalho Franco. Although subsumed under the production of the chair of Sociology I of the University of São Paulo because of its institutional belonging, Franco's work questions rather than confirms some of the presuppositions of development theory linked to the works of Florestan Fernandes and his research group. The analysis of her doctoral (1964) and associate professorship (1970) theses, among other texts, shows a critical view, and an alternative proposition about the contrast between tradition and modernity in the investigation of Brazilian society as a result of the essentially modern origin of this social experience.
Brazilian Sociology; Comparative Social Theory; Theory and History; Tradition and Modernity