This symposium brings together the theory and practice of public sociology. The introduction sets out the meanings of public sociology, emphasizing its plurality and its relation to multiple publics. From there, it frames public sociology in relation to policy, professional, and critical sociologies. This constellation of the division of sociological labor varies over time and between countries. We argue for a normative model of antagonistic interdependence, which holds all four types in equilibrium. The core of the symposium contains six autobiographical case studies of the practice of public sociology, all from Boston College. In different ways, each case study responds to the issues raised in the introduction. The conclusion to the symposium is a manifesto for public sociologies, setting out the implications of the case studies for sociology's relation to society. discipline, beginning on their own doorstep at Berkeley. It was the return of the repressednot for the first time, nor for the last. What applies to the discipline applies to the individual. Sociologists often enter the discipline with questions of social justice and inequality uppermost in their minds, stimulated by their undergraduate teachers. Graduate school seeks to expel that moral moment through a variety of disciplinary techniques-standardized courses, regimented careers, intensive examination, the lonely dissertation, the refereed publication, all captured by the all-powerful CV. Moral commitment takes cover, goes underground. It may reappear in private life or blossom forth after tenure-if one gets that far. Again, moral commitment is not banished, only repressed. It's still there like a subterranean geyser, forcing its way to the surface, driving sociology onto new terrains. What would happen if, rather than repressing the moral moment of sociology, we were to give it room to breath, recognize it rather than silence it, reflect on it rather than repress it? Would it inspire the development of science, or spell its demise? Would it enhance the legitimacy of sociology, or end its credibility? How vulnerable is science to an examination of its foundational values, to deploying its findings in the policy arena, to promoting dialogue about issues of public concern? While there are always risks and dangers in bringing sociology to a wider non-academic audience, the potential benefits are great-both to sociology and its non-academic audiences. Indeed, perhaps we have no alternative. At least, such is the presumption of this discussion paper. The first step is to name it-public sociology-a sociology that seeks to bring sociology to publics beyond the academy, promoting dialogue about issues that affect the fate of society, placing the values to which we adhere under a microscope. What is important here is the multiplicity of public sociologies, reflecting the multiplicity of publics-visible and invisible, thick and thin, active and passive, local, national and even global, dominant and counter publics. The variety of publics stretches from our stu...

No abstract

This paper proposes that the emergence of shop-floor worker participation projects in many of the largest corporations in the United States has major theoretical interest because it points to a shift in the structure of American management from Taylorist forms of organization toward "post-Taylorist " systems based on "relative worker autonomy" and limited democratic organization on the shop floor. The postulated shift toward "relative worker autonomy" is explored, first, in terms of the contradictions and failures of Taylorism-specifically its failure to integrate workers or bind them effectively, either psychologically or ideologically, to their jobs and firms. While the costs of worker dis-integration have led management to initiate post-Taylorist labor control systems, an analysis of participative experiments suggests that these new systems produce new contradictions engender ing worker expectations and entitlements for democracy in the workplace. The analysis suggests the need for a reformulation of current theories of the capitalist labor process that can explain both the emergence of "integrative" labor systems based on participation and democratic legitimations and also the new forms of contestation they produce.

No abstract