Organic Public Sociology and the Labour Movement: A Biographical Reflection

Burawoy's article (this issue) presents a succinct overview of shifts in the intellectual focus and public orientation of industrial sociology and labour studies in the US over the past century. My comments, building on a brief biographical reflection concerning my early political and intellectual formation in South Africa, seek to engage with these questions. The intention is not to assert a singular model, but rather to stimulate debate on the nature of the relationship between sociologists and movements. The argument is grounded in Burawoy's notion of an organic public sociology, which he characterises as having 'close connection with a visible, thick, active, local and often counter public' (2007, 28).