This issue inaugurates a new series on the future of sociology. The renowned Hungarian sociologist, Ivan Szelenyi, offers a diagnosis of the triple crisis of US sociology – political, methodological and theoretical. US sociology has lost its political moorings that attracted and stimulated students in the 1960s and 70s; it has lost it methodological advantage, […]

by Ivan Szelenyi, New York University, USA Ivan Szelenyi is a distinguished and decorated social scientist, bringing sociology to bear on the important questions of our time. He began his career in Hungary in the 1960s, working in the Hungarian Statistical Office and then in the Academy of Sciences until he was forced into exile […]

by Gurminder K. Bhambra, University of Warwick, UK and Board Member of ISA Research Committee on Conceptual and Terminological Analysis (RC35) Gurminder K. Bhambra is a leading figure in the development of postcolonial sociology. She addresses sociology’s parochialism by showing how the experience and contributions of the colonized have been rubbed out of history. Her […]

by Markus S. Schulz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA and ISA Vice-President for Research, 2014-18 As Vice-President for Research, Markus Schulz defined “The Futures We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World,” as the theme of the Third ISA Forum to be held in Vienna, July 10-14, 2016. Here he recounts […]

by Stéphane Beaud, École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Paris, France Can the social sciences offer “on-the-spot” commentary about the events of January 7-9, 2015 (the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris and the anti-Semitic killing at a kosher supermarket)? Or is it better to keep our distance, letting media intellectuals – […]

by Mabel Berezin, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA and member of ISA Research Committee on Sociological Theory (RC16) Around the world, political leaders and the broader public originally viewed the Charlie Hebdo murders as attacks against freedom of expression, a core democratic principle. However, it quickly became apparent that these murders had much broader political and […]

by Elisabeth Becker, Yale University, USA Ethnography entails entering the worlds of others, both observing and participating in their daily lives. Unlike archival work, survey research, or experimental methods, ethnography is vulnerable to real-world events that can interrupt, redirect or unravel research. Such was the case with my study of mosques in three countries of […]

by Laila Bushra, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan Sociology in Pakistan is hardly an established discipline in the western sense. Hamza Alavi, whose key works were published in the 1960s and 1970s, was our first and only internationally-recognized sociologist. Since Alavi, no serious sociological work has come out of, or been written about, Pakistan. […]

by Hassan Javid, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan When I started looking for a job in Pakistan, I knew that opportunities for sociologists were few and far between. Like many other parts of the world, a historical, state-led emphasis on science and engineering has placed social sciences and humanities in relatively peripheral positions in […]

by Klaus Dörre, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany and member of ISA Research Committees on Sociological Theory (RC16), Sociology of Work (RC30), Labor Movements (RC44), and Social Classes and Social Movements (RC47) Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society triggered an intellectual earthquake in Germany upon its initial publication. Beck asserted the controversial position that social reality no longer corresponded […]

by Ana María Vara, National University of San Martín, Argentina and Board Member of the ISA Research Committee on Environment and Society (RC24) How to assess the impact of Ulrich Beck’s work in Latin America? A work that so subtly and thoroughly connects human beings, the environment, and techno-scientific knowledge has a lot to say […]

by Sang-Jin Han, Seoul National University, South Korea and former Board Member of ISA Research Committee for Social Classes and Social Movements (RC47) Public attention is shaped within the landscape of discursive formations, along with historical processes of social change. Ulrich Beck’s influence in East Asia – especially China, Japan, and South Korea – is […]

by Fuyuki Kurasawa, Department of Sociology, York University, Toronto, Canada and Board Member of the ISA Research Committee on Sociological Theory (RC16) Given Ulrich Beck’s unrelenting commitment to cosmopolitanism – something that he not only theorized, but lived and deeply felt – perhaps it is appropriate that a commemorative article about his role in North […]

by Seán Ó Riain, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland In the 1990s, Ireland was known worldwide as the fast-growing “Celtic Tiger.” Booming exports driven by foreign investment got the headlines, but the real story was a massive growth in employment in a country historically marked by high unemployment and emigration. At the end of […]

by Mary P. Corcoran, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland As in other liberal democracies, the institutional public realm – as represented by publicly provided goods and services, education and public service media – has found itself in retreat in Ireland. At the same time, what I call the interstitial public realm – events below […]

by Pauline Cullen, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland Ireland’s long history of patriarchy is matched by the ongoing evolution of its women’s movements. Today’s complex, transnational feminism finds its precursor in the colonial era. The first wave of the Irish women’s movement dates from the mid-19th century, with the franchise secured for women in […]

by Rebecca Chiyoko King-O’Riain, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland Once famous for its emigration, Ireland is today a more global nation, the result of immigration during the boom of the 1990s and 2000s. Contrary to many expectations, not all immigrants who came to Ireland during the boom went “home” to Poland and elsewhere during […]