By ERIK CHICONELLI GOMES*

Tribute to the recently deceased American sociologist

During my training in Social Sciences at FFLCH-USP, I had the privilege of getting to know the work of Michael Burawoy, who left us on February 04, 2025. It was in the discussions about Manufacturing consent that I first understood the depth and originality of Michael Burawoy's thought, especially his ability to combine rigorous ethnographic observation with sophisticated theoretical analysis.

The ultimate dive of Michael Burawoy in sociology occurred during his extensive fieldwork in Zambia, where he studied the complex racial and class dynamics in the country's copper mines. This experience resulted in his pioneering work The color of class on the copper mines: from African advancement to Zambianization (1972), who not only laid the foundations for his characteristic ethnographic approach to industrial work, but also demonstrated his unique ability to connect microsocial processes to the major historical transformations of global capitalism.

Em Manufacturing consent (1979), Michael Burawoy revealed the mechanisms by which workers actively participate in constructing their own consent to exploitation, an analysis that revolutionized our understanding of labor relations under advanced capitalism.

His contribution to the renewal of contemporary Marxist theory gained an even more sophisticated expression in The politics of production” (1985). In this work, Michael Burawoy developed a comparative analysis of factory regimes and their relationship with different state and economic configurations, demonstrating how production relations are fundamentally political and vary significantly in different national contexts.

The 1990s marked an important transition in his work towards more comprehensive global comparative studies. Global ethnography: forces, connections, and imaginations in a postmodern world (2000) represented an ambitious attempt to understand how globalization processes concretely affect the lives of workers in different national contexts, a work that demonstrated the possibility of conducting methodologically rigorous ethnographies on a global scale.

One of the most significant moments of his career was his presidency of the American Sociological Association in 2004, when Michael Burawoy powerfully articulated the concept of “public sociology.” In his presidential address, “For Public Sociology” (2005), which became one of the most influential articles in the discipline, he argued passionately that sociologists have a responsibility to actively engage with audiences beyond academia.

His analysis of post-socialism, based on extensive research in Hungary and Russia, offered fundamental insights into the social transformations following the collapse of state socialism. In The extended case method: four countries, four decades, four great transformations, and one theoretical tradition (2009), Michael Burawoy synthesized these observations into a powerful theory of social change and resistance, demonstrating how different societies respond to profound systemic transformations.

At the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as a professor for decades, Michael Burawoy developed and refined the extended case method, a revolutionary methodological approach that allows researchers to make systematic connections between micro-social observations and macro-historical processes. This methodological contribution fundamentally transformed the way we conduct ethnographic research in sociology.

His incisive critique of the commodification of higher education and the transformation of universities into corporations provided a fundamental theoretical basis for contemporary debates on the social function of education. This critical perspective influenced generations of sociologists committed to a vision of a public and socially engaged university.

Michael Burawoy’s commitment to an undogmatic and empirically grounded Marxism revolutionized the way we understand labor relations and processes of social change. His approach demonstrated that Marxist theory can be both theoretically sophisticated and methodologically rigorous, without losing its political and social relevance.

The persistent advocacy of ethnography as a research method contributed significantly to the legitimization of this approach in the social sciences, especially in studies of work and organizations. Its global ethnographic method offered crucial methodological tools for understanding contemporary transnational phenomena.

The concept of “organic public sociology” developed by Michael Burawoy emphasizes the vital importance of ongoing dialogue between sociologists and diverse audiences, including social movements, labor unions, and marginalized communities. This perspective has redefined the role of the sociologist in contemporary society, emphasizing the need for direct engagement with pressing social issues.

His comparative analysis of different production regimes in different countries has contributed significantly to our understanding of how global capitalism manifests itself in specific local contexts. This work has demonstrated how forms of worker resistance and adaptation vary across national and historical contexts.

Michael Burawoy's emphasis on the importance of methodological reflexivity has profoundly transformed the way sociologists think about their own role in the research process. His insistence on the need to recognize and analyze the researcher's position in the field has contributed to a more conscious and ethically responsible sociological practice.

His critique of academic neoliberalism remains extremely relevant to contemporary debates about the social function of universities and the role of public intellectuals. His arguments about the need to resist the commodification of knowledge resonate ever more strongly in the current context.

Michael Burawoy’s intellectual legacy lives on through the countless students and researchers he mentored and influenced throughout his career at UC Berkeley and other institutions globally. His influence extends far beyond the sociology of work to fundamental questions about the role of sociology and sociologists in contemporary society.

Michael Burawoy’s theoretical and methodological contributions to sociology continue to profoundly shape our understanding of work, globalization, and the public role of sociology in the twenty-first century. His legacy stands as a testament to the power of critically engaged and methodologically rigorous sociology.

*Erik Chiconelli Gomes is a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Law at USP.

References

Burawoy, Michael. The color of class on the copper mines: from African advancement to Zambianization. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1972.

Burawoy, Michael. Manufacturing consent: changes in the labor process under monopoly capitalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Burawoy, Michael. The politics of production: factory regimes under capitalism and socialism. London: Verso, 1985.

Burawoy, Michael, et al. Global ethnography: forces, connections, and imaginations in a postmodern world. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

Burawoy, Michael. “For Public Sociology”. American Sociological Review 70, no. 1 (2005): 4-28.

Burawoy, Michael. The extended case method: four countries, four decades, four great transformations, and one theoretical tradition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

the earth is round there is thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
CONTRIBUTE