Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Enterprise: Remembering Michael Burawoy

Michael Burawoy has been one of the most influential contemporary sociologists. The author of a scholarly output developed over fifty years, Burawoy innovated in ways of theorizing, field research methods, and tackling the most varied objects of study: forms of consensus in labor processes, class an...

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Main Author: Riccardo Emilio Chesta
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Bologna 2025-05-01
Series:Sociologica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/21756
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author Riccardo Emilio Chesta
author_facet Riccardo Emilio Chesta
author_sort Riccardo Emilio Chesta
collection DOAJ
description Michael Burawoy has been one of the most influential contemporary sociologists. The author of a scholarly output developed over fifty years, Burawoy innovated in ways of theorizing, field research methods, and tackling the most varied objects of study: forms of consensus in labor processes, class and race relations, major political-economic transitions, and finally modes of knowledge production. This essay is both a tribute to his great scientific testimony and an essential portrait of his sociological style, which conceives scientific work as an authentic Weberian public vocation, strongly linked to reflexivity and pluralism in the way of theorizing, capable of revising its paradigms thanks to comparative empirical research in time and space. A scientific and critical enterprise that is capable of being global, enriched by a diversity of contexts and by dialogue with critiques, a sociology that, in order to account for the complexity of the real, has proposed itself on many occasions as a collective work.
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spelling doaj-art-81e95fb405184fbe8a438d6fc1b485872025-08-20T03:11:33ZengUniversity of BolognaSociologica1971-88532025-05-0119151210.6092/issn.1971-8853/2175620138Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Enterprise: Remembering Michael BurawoyRiccardo Emilio Chesta0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7962-1755Politecnico di Milano (ItalyMichael Burawoy has been one of the most influential contemporary sociologists. The author of a scholarly output developed over fifty years, Burawoy innovated in ways of theorizing, field research methods, and tackling the most varied objects of study: forms of consensus in labor processes, class and race relations, major political-economic transitions, and finally modes of knowledge production. This essay is both a tribute to his great scientific testimony and an essential portrait of his sociological style, which conceives scientific work as an authentic Weberian public vocation, strongly linked to reflexivity and pluralism in the way of theorizing, capable of revising its paradigms thanks to comparative empirical research in time and space. A scientific and critical enterprise that is capable of being global, enriched by a diversity of contexts and by dialogue with critiques, a sociology that, in order to account for the complexity of the real, has proposed itself on many occasions as a collective work.https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/21756michael burawoypublic sociologytheorizingcritiquecollective intellectual
spellingShingle Riccardo Emilio Chesta
Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Enterprise: Remembering Michael Burawoy
Sociologica
michael burawoy
public sociology
theorizing
critique
collective intellectual
title Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Enterprise: Remembering Michael Burawoy
title_full Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Enterprise: Remembering Michael Burawoy
title_fullStr Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Enterprise: Remembering Michael Burawoy
title_full_unstemmed Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Enterprise: Remembering Michael Burawoy
title_short Sociology as a Vocation and a Collective Enterprise: Remembering Michael Burawoy
title_sort sociology as a vocation and a collective enterprise remembering michael burawoy
topic michael burawoy
public sociology
theorizing
critique
collective intellectual
url https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/21756
work_keys_str_mv AT riccardoemiliochesta sociologyasavocationandacollectiveenterpriserememberingmichaelburawoy