Scientific discourses are influenced by worldviews and values shared by scientific communities. In terms of sustainable development, as for other subjects, the production, dissemination and reception of knowledge structure the discursive universe of academic activities. This paper provides a mapping of the field of academic interactions based on a sample of 93 influential intellectuals active in sustainable development thinking in Latin America, from a review of more than ten thousand citations over a period of forty years (1972-2012). The software Gephi was used to draw figures that highlight these networks along three separate periods of time. A first period runs from 1970 and the start of modern environmental concerns until 1987 and the publication of the very influential Brundtland Report. A second period (1987-2002) covers the period of a flourishing institutional concept of sustainable development until the Johannesburg Conference. And the third one runs until the Rio+20 Summit in 2012. This quantitative analysis is complemented by a qualitative analysis of the works and relations of the most influential authors. The results show a gradual structuring of the discursive field on the subcontinent. We are able to trace the main relations between authors in Latin America and outside, mostly to the US and Europe. Our results also show that many academics in the sub region elaborated critical discourses that developed in synergy with various social movements that strive for justice and socio-environmental sustainability.