Global Dialogue, Magazine of International Sociology Association

Michael Burawoy, a Compass for Sociology in our Times

GD 15.3

Michael Burawoy passed away abruptly on February 3, 2025. The International Sociological Association (ISA) mourns one of its most influential and inspiring presidents, a remarkable and creative global sociologist, an advocate for a public sociology relevant to the people and civil society, an inspiring teacher who trained generations of sociologists, and an extraordinary human being. Born in 1947, Michael Burawoy was first trained as a mathematician, until he casually read a book in sociology at Christ’s College library in Cambridge. He completed a Master’s degree...

15.3

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Latest Issue. GD 15.3, December 2025

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Michael Burawoy: Sociology as a Vocation

by Nazanin Shahrokni

GD 15.3

Michael Burawoy was more than a sociologist; he was a builder of sociology – not only through his theoretical contributions, but through the institutions he shaped, the relationships he nurtured, and the global solidarities he forged. He transformed the discipline into a reflexive and practice-oriented field – one that interrogates power, centers the margins, and bridges critique with imagination, theory with action. In this spirit, I reflect on Michael’s contributions and highlight his enduring impact on the discipline, its methodologies, pedagogies, and global articulations. Living...

Michael Burawoy: Between Resilient Marxism and Public Sociology

by Ruy Braga

GD 15.3

On the night of February 3, 2025, Michael Burawoy was fatally struck by a vehicle near his home in Oakland, California. The driver fled but was later arrested. Michael’s death marked the loss of the most important contemporary Marxist sociologist, whose career had repositioned Marxism within the university after the collapse of bureaucratic state socialism, while maintaining an organic link between theory and struggles for human emancipation. Michael retired in 2023 from the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, after 47 years of dedicated service to...

Burawoy and the Craft of Global Public Sociology: Dialogues with Russia

by Pavel Krotov, Tatyana Lytkina, Svetlana Yaroshenko

GD 15.3

Michael Burawoy, a renowned social theorist and proponent of public sociology, passed away at the age of 77. Throughout his life, he dedicated himself to sociology – revealing hidden societal boundaries, addressing various forms of inequality, and fostering connections across communities, including within the discipline itself. Michael was, and will remain, a multifaceted luminary in sociology – a friend, mentor, and colleague to us. His scholarly contributions and legacy will endure, particularly for those examining the trajectory of neoliberal capitalism and the vulnerability...

Michael Burawoy: Public Sociology and Optimism of the Will

by Fareen Parvez

GD 15.3

Michael Burawoy was my PhD advisor and was in my life from 2001. I had the privilege of sharing a rich and wonderful dialogue with him for 24 years. My last email to Michael was just a few hours before I learned of his passing, sharing with him my thoughts for a Palestine teach-in that he generously encouraged. Just minutes after teaching his brilliant 2000 essay, “Marxism after Communism,” I received a voicemail and then read the devastating email. It’s both painful and heartwarming to help honor his legacy. Reaching across national divides was so important to Michael...

Labor Process and Production of Hegemony: Burawoy’s Contribution

by Aylin Topal

GD 15.3

I first met Prof. Michael Burawoy in person at the Conference of the Council of National Associations of the International Sociological Association (ISA) in Ankara in 2013. At the time, he was serving as the President of the ISA. Since then, I became an active member of the ISA and Michael and I remained in contact, meeting at ISA conferences and exchanging emails on important political events. He was truly a transdisciplinary social scientist. I, as a political scientist, became a member of the ISA thanks to his welcoming attitude and firm transdisciplinary question-driven research. Michael...

Encounters and Debates with Michael Burawoy

by Ari Sitas

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I was introduced to Michael Burawoy’s work in 1979. Eddie Webster, my teacher, came to me clutching a fresh book, Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under Monopoly Capitalism. He insisted that I had to use this book in the lectures I was to give as his replacement at Wits. “This is a perfect companion”, he insisted, “to Huw Beynon’s Working for Ford”, which was to form the core of the lectures. So, there I was trying to understand how hegemony...

Michael Burawoy: A Lighthouse

by Shaikh Mohammad Kais

GD 15.3

Professor Michael Burawoy has been a lasting source of inspiration for numerous sociologists from the Global South. He challenged the idea of “one sociology for all” and passionately defended the existence of “many sociologies around the globe.” His writings and speeches emphasized the pivotal role of sociology within the South, questioned the hierarchical global division of intellectual labor, and argued for theories grounded in the lived experiences of our societies. Working in Bangladesh, I was profoundly influenced by his perspectives on a decolonized and...

Honoring Michael Burawoy: A Marxist Lens on South Africa’s Minibus Taxi Industry

by Siyabulela Fobosi

GD 15.3

Michael Burawoy stands as a towering figure in sociology, particularly in the realm of public sociology, where his ethnographic methods and Marxist insights have reshaped understandings of labor, capitalism, and state power. His work has provided a critical lens through which scholars analyze systems of exploitation and resistance within capitalist economies. In paying tribute to Burawoy’s scholarly contributions, we find that his theories remain profoundly relevant in contemporary studies, including those examining South Africa’s minibus taxi industry. Burawoy’s seminal...

The Periodic Table of a Feasible Utopia

by David Goldblatt

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I’m not quite sure where the idea for the Periodic Table came from, but I put it down to lockdown madness. However, I know it had many elements. I first encountered it in an encyclopedia as a child. I remember the sheer design pleasure of its rows of coloured rectangles and its mysterious nomenclature. As a former chemistry student, I respect and wonder at its scientific and intellectual elegance. As a reader of Primo Levi’s Periodic Table, I saw with delight that the Table could be turned into such rich metaphorical territory, a grid of both electron structure and emotional...

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