Public Sociology

Michael Burawoy has helped to reshape the theory and practice of sociology across the Western world. Public Sociology is his most thoroughgoing attempt to explore what a truly committed, engaged sociology should look like in the twenty-first century.

Burawoy looks back on the defining moments of his intellectual journey, exploring his pivotal early experiences as a researcher, such as his fieldwork in a Zambian copper mine and a Chicago factory. He recounts his time as a graduate and professor during the ideological ferment in sociology departments of the 1970s, and explores how his experiences intersected with a changing political and intellectual world up to the present. Recalling Max Weber, Burawoy argues that sociology is much more than just a discipline – it is a vocation, to be practiced everywhere and by everyone.

Review

“Michael Burawoy has written a fascinating intellectual autobiography, reconstructing the sociological canon along the way. This is a powerful call for sociology to recover its public mission.”Edward Webster, University of the Witwatersrand“Behind Michael Burawoy’s inspirational new book lies his extraordinary experiences alongside, and research into, the  lives of workers in Zambia, Hungary, Russia, and Chicago. At each stop in his journey, he asks: What is this worker’s life like? And how could it be? This is such a welcome and important book – read it and pass it on.”Arlie Hochschild, author of Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right “Michael Burawoy argues for a sociology that encourages and informs critical public discussions on the preservation of our society.

 His illuminating personal trajectory, used as an object of analysis and placed in a wider social context, is a must-read.”William Julius Wilson, Harvard University