[movimenti.bicocca] Public Sociology

Edited by Dan Clawson, Robert Zussman, Joya Misra, Naomi Gerstel,
Randall Stokes, Douglas L. Anderton, and Michael Burawoy
Public Sociology
Fifteen Eminent Sociologists Debate Politics and the Profession in
the Twenty-first Century

Contributors: Andrew Abbott, Michael Burawoy, Patricia Hill Collins,
Barbara Ehrenreich, Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Sharon Hays, Douglas Massey,
Joya Misra, Orlando Patterson, Frances Fox Piven, Lynn Smith-Lovin,
Judith Stacey, Arthur Stinchcombe, Alain Touraine, Immanuel
Wallerstein, William Julius Wilson, Robert Zussman


CONTENTS (back to top)

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTORY
Introduction--Robert Zussman and Joya Misra
For Public Sociology--Michael Burawoy

INSTITUTIONALIZING PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY
Public Sociology and the End of Society--Alain Touraine
Stalled at the Altar? Conflict, Hierarchy, and Compartmentalization
in Burawoy's Public Sociology--Sharon Hays
If I Were the Goddess of Sociological Things--Judith Stacey
Going Public: Doing the Sociology That Had No Name--Patricia Hill
Collins

POLITICS AND THE PROFESSION
Speaking to Publics--William Julius Wilson
Do We Need a Public Sociology? It Depends on What You Mean by
Sociology--Lynn Smith-Lovin
Speaking Truth to the Public, and Indirectly to Power--Arthur L.
Stinchcombe
The Strength of Weak Politics--Douglas S. Massey
From Public Sociology to Politicized Sociologist--Frances Fox Piven

FALSE DISTINCTIONS: CONCEPTUAL RESERVATIONS
The Sociologist and the Public Sphere--Immanuel Wallerstein
About Public Sociology--Orlando Patterson
For Humanist Sociology--Andrew Abbott

INTERDISCIPLINARITY
Whose Public Sociology? The Subaltern Speaks, but Who Is Listening?--
Evelyn Nakano Glenn
A Journalist's Plea--Barbara Ehrenreich

REJOINDER
The Field of Sociology: Its Power and Its Promise--Michael Burawoy

Editors and Contributors
Index




"If the standpoint of economics is the market and its expansion, and
the standpoint of political science is the state and the guarantee of
political stability, then the standpoint of sociology is civil
society and the defense of the social. In times of market tyranny and
state despotism, sociology--and in particular its public face--
defends the interests of humanity."--Michael Burawoy, past president
of the American Sociological Association
"Sociologists should--indeed must--speak forcefully on important
issues whenever they have something to say, but they should do so as
individuals and not collectively as a profession."--Douglas Massey,
past president of the American Sociological Association
"If we aren't doing public sociology, we're just talking to each
other. To claim to study society and to say that you needn't bother
to make your work relevant or accessible to social members--well,
that seems to me just plain insane."--Sharon Hays, Streisand
Professor of Contemporary Gender Studies, University of Southern
California
"Once we acknowledge the sharp divisions in our society, we have to
decide which publics we want to work with. I propose . . . that we
strive to address the public and political problems of people at the
lower end of the many hierarchies that define our society."--Frances
Fox Piven, president of the American Sociological Association
"We must tend to our job of getting enough truth of the kind that can
bear on the future, which is what is relevant to public discourse....
we should not be distracted much by contributing to public discourse,
and what we do along that line is not likely to be much use to the
public."--Arthur Stinchcombe, formerly John Evans Professor of
Sociology, Northwestern University

DESCRIPTION (back to top)

In 2004, Michael Burawoy, speaking as president of the American
Sociological Association, generated far-reaching controversy when he
issued an ambitious and impassioned call for a "public sociology."
Burawoy argued that sociology should speak beyond the university,
engaging with social movements and deepening an understanding of the
historical and social context in which they exist. In this volume,
renowned sociologists come together to debate the perils and the
potentials of Burawoy's challenge.
ABOUT THE EDITORS (back to top)

Dan Clawson, Robert Zussman, Joya Misra, Naomi Gerstel, Randall
Stokes, and Douglas L. Anderton teach in the Department of Sociology
at the University of Massachusetts. Michael Burawoy, former president
of the American Sociological Association, is Professor of Sociology
at the University of California, Berkeley.