The Political Sociology of W. E. B. Du Bois

Abstract

This handbook and other recent works have claimed W. E. B. Du Bois as foundational to sociology and the social sciences. With few exceptions, however, the recuperation of Du Bois has not extended to political sociology (and politically oriented works in comparative historical sociology). This chapter claims Du Bois as a political sociologist. A wealth of largely unharvested insights in his work awaits the subfield. Here, the focus is on three issues: (1) the entwinement of socio-political processes, (2) the concomitant paradigm shifts implicit in a Du Boisian political sociology for objects of inquiry such as the state and development, and (3) the political exhortation at the heart of these paradigm shifts, which centers on retheorizing democracy and democratization.

Editors’ Note, 2024 to 2026: Looking to W.E.B. Du Bois

“…We also like Du Bois’s image as a representation of our discipline’s current place in history, where many colleagues (including some in our department at UMass) have forged a Du Boisian turn in sociology (e.g., de Leon and Rodríguez-Muñiz 2022; Góes 2022; Morris 2015; Vásquez 2023). In 1993, considerably prior to the current resurgence of interest in Du Bois, UMass sociology faculty member Edwin Driver—hired in 1948 as the first African American professor on our campus—with Dan.…”