DOCSLIB.ORG

November 2003 Number 8

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
November 2003 Number 8 VOLUME 31 NOVEMBER 2003 NUMBER 8 2004 Annual Meeting . Public Sociologies Public Sociology and UC’s Institute on Labor and Employment The first in a series of articles highlighting the sociological context of ASA’s next Annual Meeting location . San Francisco, California by Sarah Anne Minkin, gists, including its current and upcoming intellectual resources to advance their for decades.” And for scholars, the ILE University of California-Berkeley directors, Ruth Milkman, Professor of work, labor advocates helped push the presents “an incredible opportunity to get Sociology at UCLA and Margaret Weir, establishment of the ILE through the state inside a social movement that’s working Public Sociology is the theme of this Professor of Sociology and Political legislature in 2000. for social justice,” says Milkman. summer’s Annual Meeting in San Science at the UC Berkeley. The ILE is unique as an academic With an initial $6-million budget, the Francisco. While many of us are familiar institution with close ties to labor; Tom ILE is the only institution in the country with it in theory, what does it look like in Labor Is Growing Rankin, President of the California Labor of its magnitude dedicated to bridging practice? What are its challenges, dilem- The ILE’s development comes at a Federation, sits on the governing council. academic research and the labor move- mas and unique advantages? One place to time of renewed sociological interest in The close working relationship with the ment. As a research institution, ILE’s look for answers is the Institute on Labor labor, as evidenced labor movement is collaborative model bridging fieldwork and Employment (ILE), a University of by the founding of essential to ILE’s and scholarship is new. It builds on the California multi-campus research the Labor and [P]ublic sociology is the success as both an foundation of the Institutes of Industrial program that engages scholars and labor Labor Movements discipline’s “moral moment,” innovation in Relations (IIR) and Labor Centers at UC- movement staff and activists in studying Section at the ASA academia and a Berkeley and UCLA. The IIR was founded issues of labor and employment in when sociologists engage a resource to a major in the 1940s to help solve labor issues three years ago and public beyond the academy, California and the United States. the slew of recent social movement. with science. Labor Centers (formally, ASA President Michael Burawoy, new books on bringing their tools and As Ruth Milkman Centers for Labor Research and Educa- instigator of this Annual Meeting theme, labor. The Califor- expertise to dialogue on explains, “it’s a tion, also at UC-Berkeley and UCLA) believes that public sociology is the nia labor move- issues affecting society as a two-way process. were established in the 1960s to serve as discipline’s “moral moment,” when ment, which whole. The labor move- the university’s outreach into the labor sociologists engage a public beyond the directly represents ment figured out community, bringing material and academy, bringing their tools and millions of mem- that they need intellectual resources to the movement. expertise to dialogue on issues affecting bers and advocates for millions more additional intellectual resources to The ILE now works with both the IIRs society as a whole. Society benefits from people beyond its membership, is in a counter the sophistication of managerial and the Labor Centers, having dramati- sociology’s insights and wisdom, and period of particular political strength. In opposition to unions today.” The ILE’s cally increased the Labor Centers’ sociology gains from the critical feedback the past few years they have increased research gives organized labor a “better budgets. With new support, the Labor and challenges it faces when its ideas are their numbers by the tens of thousands, basis for advocating for changes” in Centers have expanded their work, which aired in public. The ILE espouses this secured passage of ‘living-wage’ ordi- public policy, says Tom Rankin. More- includes building organizing partnerships model, working closely with the labor nances throughout the state, and suc- over, he continues, the ILE offers orga- with unions and providing them with movement to develop and execute its ceeded in getting California’s unprec- nized labor “the same access to academic training and support. Through the Labor agenda. An interdisciplinary institution, edented Paid Family Leave Law passed. resources that businesses and especially Centers, outreach into the labor commu- the ILE is heavily weighted with sociolo- agriculture here in California have had Determining that they needed additional See Annual Meeting, page 11 Sociologists Are Appointed Sage Fellows Are Sociology Programs Downsizing? Six sociologists were among the 21 affiliations, and social mobility. by Roberta Spalter-Roth replace retiring faculty, new PhDs could leading social scientists recently appointed Becky Pettit, University of Washing- Research Program on the face a favorable job market. Under a 2003-04 Visiting Scholars at the Russell ton, will investigate the role of institu- Discipline and the Profession scenario of financial woes, however, Sage Foundation. During their tenure at tional factors on labor market opportuni- retiring PhDs might not be replaced and, the Foundation, the Fellows will pursue ties and patterns of inequality. Her first A recent series of articles in the as a result, new PhDs will face a tighter research and writing projects that will project will look at the role of the prison Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that job market and departments will shrink. promote the Foundation’s commitment system in perpetuating racial and class academic departments are downsizing as to strengthening the social sciences. inequality and the second will look at retirements accelerate and “hiring freezes Aging in Sociology Compared to All visiting scholars undertake timely cross-country variation in women’s labor abound.” State budget shortfalls and Other Social Sciences social science research and apply their force participation. declining stock portfolios have affected Relative to economists and political research to significant social problems. Sidney G. Tarrow, Cornell University, scholarly disciplines in both the humani- scientists, younger PhDs in sociology While Visiting Scholars typically work on will write a book about transnational ties and the sciences, including English, represent a smaller share of employed projects related to the Foundation’s activism. He will explore a variety of history, physics, and math. Interviews PhDs, ranging from 18.5 percent to 25.4 current programs, a number of scholars questions from whether they are a with department chairs suggest that percent, across four age cohorts younger whose research falls outside the distinct group to how they gain certifica- teaching loads are increasing, as special- than age 50. (See Figure 1) Conversely, Foundation’s active programs also tion and operate. He will look at the ties are being cut, and temporary faculty within five older cohorts (i.e., greater participate. implications for American policy toward are being hired to cover classes. than age 50), sociology PhDs constitute a Kenneth T. Andrews, University of domestic transnational groups. Are similar trends occurring in the larger share of employed PhDs across North Carolina-Chapel Hill, will write a Julia C. Wrigley, City University of social sciences and, especially, sociology? these cohorts, ranging from 30.5 percent book about local and state environmental New York Graduate Center, will write a Is sociology facing a “retirement bubble”? to 34.2 percent. Figure 1 shows that, groups and the social, political, and book analyzing episodes of harm to Can we expect a downsizing of sociology compared to these other two social economic factors that influence them. His children in non-parental childcare and the departments over the next decade as the science disciplines, the sociological aim is to evaluate their effectiveness and effect it has on their trust of parents, largest cohort of full-time tenured community is older. This inverted “age their influence over policy. caregivers, and investigators. Her project sociologists ages and retires? Will pyramid” in sociology suggests that, so Nancy DiTomaso, Rutgers University, will provide insight into the costs and departments be able to replace them with far, younger PhDs are not replacing older will write a book examining the reasons vulnerabilities created by heavy reliance new tenured or tenure track full-time sociologists. many white Americans do not see the on interpersonal trust. hires? Many older sociologists earned contradictions between the persistence of The Russell Sage Foundation is a their PhD degrees and assumed academic Employment Status of racial inequality and their belief in the research center, a funding source for positions during the steady periods of Older Sociologists existence of equal opportunity. It will studies by scholars at other academic and growth in sociology that lasted until 1976. One explanation of these findings is explore the paradox between white research institutions, and an active After 1976, there was a steady decline in that academic sociology programs, the America’s beliefs and their recognition of member of the nation’s social science the number of new PhDs, until 1990 when largest employers of sociologists, are advantages. community. It also publishes, under its the numbers began to slowly
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Four Sociologies, Multiple Roles
    The British Journal of Sociology 2005 Volume 56 Issue 3 Four sociologies, multiple roles Stella R. Quah The current American and British debate on public sociology introduced by Michael Burawoy in his 2004 ASA Presidential Address (Burawoy 2005) has inadvertently brought to light once again, one exciting but often overlooked aspect of our discipline: its geographical breadth.1 Sociology is present today in more countries around the world than ever before. Just as in the case of North America and Europe, Sociology’s presence in the rest of the world is manifested in many ways but primarily through the scholarly and policy- relevant work of research institutes, academic departments and schools in universities; through the training of new generations of sociologists in univer- sities; and through the work of individual sociologists in the private sector or the civil service. Michael Burawoy makes an important appeal for public sociology ‘not to be left out in the cold but brought into the framework of our discipline’ (2005: 4). It is the geographical breadth of Sociology that provides us with a unique vantage point to discuss his appeal critically. And, naturally, it is the geo- graphical breadth of sociology that makes Burawoy’s Presidential Address to the American Sociological Association relevant to sociologists outside the USA. Ideas relevant to all sociologists What has Michael Burawoy proposed that is most relevant to sociologists beyond the USA? He covers such an impressive range of aspects of the dis- cipline that it is not possible to address all of them here. Thus, thinking in terms of what resonates most for sociologists in different locations throughout the geographical breadth of the discipline, I believe his analytical approach and his call for integration deserve special attention.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking Burawoy's Public Sociology: a Post-Empiricist Critique." in the Handbook of Public Sociology, Edited by Vincent Jeffries, 47-70
    Morrow, Raymond A. "Rethinking Burawoy's Public Sociology: A Post-Empiricist Critique." In The Handbook of Public Sociology, edited by Vincent Jeffries, 47-70. Lantham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. 3 Rethinking Burawoy’s Public Sociology: A Post-Empiricist Reconstruction Raymond A. Morrow Following Michael Burawoy’s ASA presidential address in August 2004, “For Public Sociology,” an unprecedented international debate has emerged on the current state and future of sociology (Burawoy 2005a). The goal here will be to provide a stock-taking of the resulting commentary that will of- fer some constructive suggestions for revising and reframing the original model. The central theme of discussion will be that while Burawoy’s mani- festo is primarily concerned with a plea for the institutionalization of pub- lic sociology, it is embedded in a very ambitious social theoretical frame- work whose full implications have not been worked out in sufficient detail (Burawoy 2005a). The primary objective of this essay will be to highlight such problems in the spirit of what Saskia Sassen calls “digging” to “detect the lumpiness of what seems an almost seamless map” (Sassen 2005:401) and to provide suggestions for constructive alternatives. Burawoy’s proposal has enjoyed considerable “political” success: “Bura- woy’s public address is, quite clearly, a politician’s speech—designed to build consensus and avoid ruffling too many feathers” (Hays 2007:80). As Patricia Hill Collins puts it, the eyes of many students “light up” when the schema is presented: “There’s the aha factor at work. They reso- nate with the name public sociology. Wishing to belong to something bigger than themselves” (Collins 2007:110–111).
    [Show full text]
  • Public Sociology/Contexts
    Sociology 504: Public Sociology Spring 2013 Arlene Stein [email protected] Thursday 1:10‐3:50 Office hours: Thursday 4‐5 and by appointment This is a course that will both reflect upon the idea of “public sociology” and produce public sociological work. In the analytical component, we will explore such questions as: what is the sociological audience? What is the relationship between academia and public intellectual life? How do styles of writing/public address determine our relationship to different publics? We will read work by M. Burawoy, B. Agger, C. W. Mills, among others. The workshop component of the course will involve participating in the production of Contexts, the ASA’s hybrid magazine/journal which is dedicated to disseminating translating sociological work to broader publics. The magazine is now housed at Rutgers (and at Seattle University). Students in this course will learn about the production of the magazine from the inside, and actually participate in writing, editing, image selection, and other tasks. The course will: 1) deepen students’ substantive expertise in cutting‐edge sociological scholarship; 2) guide them in developing writing skills that address academic and non‐academic audiences; 3) engage in critical and constructive discussion of the field of sociology; 4) provide an inside view of the journal reviewing and editorial decision‐making. And they may even get their work published! Required books: Dan Clawson, Robert Zussman, et al, eds., Public Sociology (California 2007) Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed (Holt 2002) Requirements: Do the reading, participate in discussion, and contribute: 1) an “in brief” piece for Contexts 2) a blog entry 3) a podcast for Contexts.org ** Note: Syllabus subject to change January 24.
    [Show full text]
  • Public Sociology Against Market Fundamentalism and Global Inequality in German]
    SOCIOLOGY: GOING PUBLIC, GOING GLOBAL Michael Burawoy [Introduction to Public Sociology against Market Fundamentalism and Global Inequality in German] The essays in this book were written in the decade between 2004 and 2014. The opening essay is my address to the American Sociological Association and the closing essay my address to the International Sociological Association. They represent a movement from public sociology to global sociology. In 2004 when I laid out an agenda for public sociology I did not anticipate the controversy it would generate, and therefore I did not appreciate its historical significance. What was significant about the moment and the context? The essays that follow are my attempt to situate public sociology in relation to the transformation of the university, and beyond that in relation to what I call third-wave marketization that has devastated so much of the planet. Such broader movements affecting sociology and other disciplines called for self-examination as to the meaning of our endeavors. These essays are part of such a reflection, pointing to new directions for sociology in particular. Here sociology is defined by its standpoint, specifically the standpoint of civil society. It contrasts with economics that takes the standpoint of the market and political science that takes the standpoint of the state. Public sociology then is a critical engagement with civil society against the over-extension of market and state. It stands opposed to third-wave marketization whose differential impact across the world calls for a global sociology – one that has to recognize the continuing importance of the nation state and takes its point of departure in the social movements of our era.
    [Show full text]
  • Teachers: Lost at the Crossroads of Historiography
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 337 418 SP 033 241 AUTHOR Weiner, Lois TITLE Teachers: Lost at the Crossroads of Historiography. PUB LATE Apr 91 NOTE 24p.; Paper presented at the AnnualMeeting of the American Educational Research Association (Chicago, IL, April 3-7, 1991). PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150)-- Information Analyses (070) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Educational History; Elementary SecondaryEducation; *Females; *Historiography; LiteratureReviews; *Teachers; *Teaching (Otoupation);*Unions IDENTIFIERS *Feminist Scholarship ABSTRACT The study of teachers may well bea lens for fusing history of education's disparate perspectives,for teachers stand at the intersection of several ofhistoriography's most dynamic currents. Teachers can be categorizedas women, uorkers, professionals, citizens, andconveyers of values and ideas. Yet, until quite recently, teachers andtheir lives were absent from the writing of historians. This paperexamines how and why several different waves of educational historiographyhave ignored the history of teachers. Ultimately, teachersas a subject of historical investigation were discovered at thecrossroads of labor and women's history, but not before both perspectiveswere well established. Teacher unionism and teachers asa subject cf feminist scholarship are discussed. Forty bibliographical referencesare included. (IAH) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRSare the best that can be made from the original document. ***************************ft*******************************************
    [Show full text]
  • CURRICULUM VITAE [Fall 2019]
    CURRICULUM VITAE [Fall 2019] NAME: Ira Katznelson ADDRESSES: Office of the Provost Columbia University 535 W. 116 St. 205 Low Library MC 4313 New York, NY 10027 Departments of Political Science and History Columbia University 420 West 118th Street (mail code 3320) New York, New York 10027 (212) 854-3646; 222-0598 (fax) [email protected] PRESENT POSITIONS Interim Provost, Columbia University Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University EDUCATION AND DEGREES B.A., 1966 Columbia University (History) Ph.D., 1969 University of Cambridge (History) PROFESSIONAL HISTORY 2018-- Deputy Director, Columbia World Projects 2017-2018 Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions, University of Cambridge 2017-2018 Fellow, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge 2012-2017 President, Social Science Research Council 2 2003-2004 Acting Vice President for the Arts and Sciences and Dean of Faculty, Columbia University 2001-- Research Associate, Centre for History and Economics, University of Cambridge 2000--2013 Director, American Institutions Project, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University 1994-- Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University 1989-1994 Co-Director, Center for Politics, Theory, and Policy, The Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research 1983-1994 Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science, The Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research 1983-1989 Dean, The Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research 1982-1983 Director, Center
    [Show full text]
  • Manufacturing Consent Thirty Years Later
    ANOTHER THIRTY YEARS1 Michael Burawoy It is now exactly 30 years since I began working at Allied Corporation, which in turn was 30 years after the great Chicago ethnographer, Donald Roy, began working there in 1944. I recently returned to my old stomping ground to see what had become of the engine division of Allis Chalmers – I can now reveal the company’s real name. The physical plant is still there in the town of Harvey, south of Chicago. Its grounds are overgrown with weeds, its buildings are dilapidated. It has a new owner. Allis Chalmers, then the third biggest corporation in the production of agricultural equipment after Caterpillar and John Deere, entered dire financial straights and was bought out by K-H-Deutz AG of Germany in 1985. The engine division in Harvey also shut down in 1985. Soon, thereafter, it became the warehouse of a local manufacturer of steel tubes – Allied Tubes. Thus, in yet another quirk of sociological serendipity the alias that I gave Allis Chalmers turned out to be the actual name of the company that bought it up! Even more interesting, in 1987, Allied Tubes was taken over by Tyco -- the scandal-fraught international conglomerate. In the last year Tyco’s two top executives have made headline news, charged with securities fraud, tax evasion and looting hundreds of millions of dollars from the conglomerate. Warehousing, conglomeration and corporate looting well capture the fall out of the Reagan era that began in 1980, five years after I left Allis. South Chicago had been 1 To appear as a special preface to the Chinese edition of Manufacturing Consent.
    [Show full text]
  • August 2021 CURRICULUM VITAE Margaret M. Weir Department Of
    August 2021 CURRICULUM VITAE Margaret M. Weir Department of Political Science 111 Thayer St. Brown University Providence RI 02912 [email protected] Education Ph.D. The University of Chicago, 1986 Political Science M.A. Brandeis University, 1978 Sociology B.A. Antioch College, 1975 Political Science Professional Appointments 2017-present Wilson Professor of International and Public Affairs and Political Science, Brown University 2016-2017 Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Brown University 2016-present Professor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley 2012-2016 Avice M. Saint Endowed Chair in Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley 1997-2016 Professor, Departments of Sociology and Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, University of California-Berkeley 2002–04 Director, Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley 1992-1997 Senior Fellow, Governmental Studies, The Brookings Institution Fall 1995 Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University 1990-1992 John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University 1989-1990 Associate Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University 1985-1989 Assistant Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University Honors and Awards Norton Long Career Achievement Award, Urban and Local Politics Section, American Political Science Association. John G. Winant Visiting Professor of American Government, University of Oxford, (Spring 2020). Matina
    [Show full text]
  • The Promise of Public Sociology
    The British Journal of Sociology 2005 Volume 56 Issue 3 The promise of public sociology Craig Calhoun Michael Burawoy’s Presidential Address to the 2005 ASA meeting was an extraordinary event. There was a buzz of excitement, the culmination of a week of high energy discussions of ‘public sociology’, and the product also of a year in which Burawoy had criss-crossed the USA speaking to dozens of groups and urging those who often give the ASA a pass in favour of local or activist meetings to come to San Francisco. The excitement was fueled also by a sense of renewed engagement with the reasons many – especially of the baby boom and 1960s generations – had chosen to become sociologists in the first place. A ballroom with seating for several thousand was filled to overflowing (I arrived early yet had to stand in the back). The talk ran to nearly twice the allotted time but few left. And at the end, teams of Berkeley students wearing black T-shirts proclaiming Marx ‘the first public sociologist’ roamed the aisles to collect questions. The excitement was not a fluke, but reflected a coincidence of good timing with shrewd recognition of the enduring commitments and desires of many sociologists. Sociologists found not only found their activism encouraged but their self-respect buoyed. And indeed, there was more than a little self- affirmation in the air. To be sure, there were also grumblings from some, espe- cially older white male and highly professional sociologists. But most even of these found much to enjoy in the exuberance of the moment – and the sheer organizational and mobilizing success of the record-setting annual meeting.
    [Show full text]
  • In Critical Solidarity Newsletter of the Labor and Labor Movements Section American Sociological Association Vol
    In Critical Solidarity Newsletter of the Labor and Labor Movements Section American Sociological Association Vol. 3, No. 3 December 2003 Section Officers Chair: Ruth Milkman [email protected] Past Chair: Kim Voss [email protected] Chair Elect: Dan Clawson ([email protected] ) Secretary-Treasurer: Heidi Gottfried [email protected] Council: Jill Esbenshade ([email protected] ) Harland Prechel ([email protected] ) Daisy Rooks ([email protected] ) Joel Stillerman ([email protected] ) Webmaster: George Mason web address: http://www.laborstudies.wayne.edu/ASA/ Author Meets Critic: Forces of Labor Edited by Heidi Gottfried Wayne State University This Author Meets Critic section features Beverly Silver’s new book, Forces of Labor: Workers’ Movements and Globalization since 1870, published by Cambridge University Press, 2003 ($23.00 paper). Reviews by Michael Burawoy, Ching Kwan Lee and Ian Robinson, and a rejoinder by Beverly Silver, raise issues of central importance Newsletter Contents Author Meets Critics: Beverly Silver’s Forces of Production Heidi Gottfried, editor’s Introduction, p. 1 Michael Burawoy: Where Next for Labor?, p. 2 Ching Kwan Lee: Beyond Historical Capitalism, p. 4 Ian Robinson: Race to the Bottom?, p. 6 Beverly Silver: Rejoinder, p. 8 ASA 2004 convention sessions, p. 3 Awards Nominations solicited Distinguished Scholarly Article, p. 5 Best Student Paper, p.7 New journal announcement, p. 10 Past Chair’s report, Kim Voss, p. 11 Chair’s report, Ruth Milkman, p. 11 New books by section members, p. 12 Newsletter editor: Dan Clawson ([email protected] ) not only to the study of labor, but also to debates over the future of labor movements and the prospects for workers’ transnational solidarity.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Prof. Isaac Martin Sociology 246 Office: SSB 469 Winter 2009 Phone
    Prof. Isaac Martin Sociology 246 Office: SSB 469 Winter 2009 Phone: x4-5589 Tu 9:30-12:20 Office hours: Tues., Weds. 3:30-4:30 SSB 101 e-mail: [email protected] THE WELFARE STATE At the beginning of the twentieth century, governments were mainly organizations for making war and protecting property. By the beginning of the twenty-first century they had taken on many other tasks—most especially the task of social provision, or insuring the welfare of their citizens and residents. Today, the world’s most developed states devote most of their budgets, much of their law, and a large share of their personnel to the project of providing their citizens with income security—by means of policy instruments that include poor relief, old-age pensions, sick leave, housing, child care, and dozens of others. This is a course in the comparative political sociology of public social provision—i.e., a course on “the welfare state,” broadly construed. We will be trying to understand why different societies at different times take different approaches to this task. In other words, we will ask how welfare states arose, how they differ, why they persist, and how they change. The study of social provision has been a staple of sociology since the founding of the discipline. But the political sociology of welfare states has assumed increasing centrality in the discipline over the last three decades, as scholars working on a wide range of topics have amassed evidence that public social provision affects many outcomes of concern to sociology—such as poverty and inequality, social mobility, health outcomes, urban development, and collective behavior.
    [Show full text]
  • The Turn to Public Sociology: the Case of U.S. Labor Studies
    THE TURN TO PUBLIC SOCIOLOGY: THE CASE OF U.S. LABOR STUDIES. 1 Michael Burawoy N the US, 1974 marked the beginning of a great transformation. In labor studies it was I the year of the publication of Harry Braverman’s Labor and Monopoly Capital , and the launching of a Marxist research program focused on the labor process. Braverman turned away from all subjectivist views of work to proclaim his famous deskilling hypothesis, namely the history of monopoly capitalism was the history of the degradation of work. True or false, it was a decisive break with narrowly conceived industrial sociology and timeless organization theory. 1974 also marked a major recession in the US economy and the onset of an economic and then a political assault on labor that would throw Braverman’s claims into relief. More broadly, this birth of neoliberalism, capitalism’s third wave of marketization, would deeply affect both the labor movement and the focus of academic research. It is the changing relationship among economic and political context, labor movement and labor studies that preoccupies this paper. The rupture with professional sociology marked by Labor and Monopoly Capital , and the research program it inaugurated, was followed by a transition , some 20 years later, from the study of the labor process to an engagement with the labor movement. This transition to public sociology has been one of the more exciting developments in an otherwise heavily professionalized discipline and a generally bleak labor scene. Yet the shift of focus from structure to agency, from process to movement, from a critical- professional sociology to a critical-public sociology of labor occurred in the very period of the labor movement’s greatest decline -- the percentage of the labor force unionized in the private sector fell precipitously from 23.6% in 1974 to 7.4% by 2006.
    [Show full text]