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INTRODUCTION In 'For public sociology' and other essays, Michael Burawoy acknowledges that the national sociologies of countries other than the US (e.g., Brazil, Norway, South Africa) differ substantially from the [...]

Michael Burawoy offers an innovative call to reintegrate our discipline. Using Canada as an example, I argue that his proposal underestimates the extent of institutional separatism among branches of sociology. Influenced by antipositivist currents in the humanities over the past two decades, critical sociologists are disconnecting from mainstream empirical research. Simultaneously, the mainstream is moving in a very different direction as it responds to developments in other social sciences, and largely ignores the humanities. I hypothesize that this institutional drift limits the possibility of mutual correction between various branches of sociology, a process that is central to Burawoy's proposal. Possible scenarios for the future of public sociology in Canada are discussed in light of this hypothesis. Keywords: public sociology; critical sociology; disciplines; research Michael Burawoy lance un appel avant-gardiste a reintegrer notre discipline. Or, prenant le Canada a titre d'exemple, l'auteur soutient que sa proposition sous-estime l'etendue du separatisme institutionnel des differentes branches de la sociologie. Il explique que les sociologues critiques sont en train de se couper du courant principal de la recherche empirique, apres avoir ete influences par les courants antipositivistes dans les humanites au cours des deux dernieres decennies. Pendant ce temps, le courant principal se deplace dans une autre direction, a cause de l'influence de changements tres differents dans les autres sciences sociales. L'auteur emet l'hypothese que ces tendances separees reduisent la possibilite de loyaute mutuelle entre les diverses branches de la sociologie, un processus qui est fondamental dans la proposition de Burawoy. Il discute de scenarios possibles pour l'avenir de la sociologie publique au Canada a la lumiere de cette hypothese. Mots cles: sociologie publique; sociologie critique; disciplines; recherche, INTRODUCTION: MUTUAL CORRECTION IN SOCIOLOGY? Sociology enjoys little consensus over its fundamental standards, methods and theories, or the role of politics in its scholarship. Debates over these issues have inflicted [...]

Globalization presages an important new stage in the centuries-old 'civilizing process,' which Norbert Elias analyzed with such clarity and in such depth. At the root of the fundamental transformations of [...]

White Folks know niggers talk, an they dont mind jes so long as nothing comes of it, so here goes. (Toomer, 1993, p. 90) This race talk is, of course, [...]

This article seeks to show the ways in which an addition made to the second edition of The Protestant Ethic can be illuminated by placing it in the context of Weber's personal life and how that text can also illuminate various personal concerns and relationships that characterised Weber's life, in particular during his last year alive in Munich. Aspects of Weber's personal life are explored making use of Marianne Weber's account of her husband's life, although her account is subjected to some critical analysis. It is shown that key concerns in Weber's life at this time included death, family responsibilities and eroticism. The addition (which basically involves the quotation of Siegmund's answer to Brunnhilde -- the herald of death in Wagner's opera Die Walkure), relates to these themes, and in the context of The Protestant Ethic opens up a whole range of intertextual affinities which serve to highlight the way in which Weber drew on a cultural heritage to give expression to his ideas and emotions. This complexity also relates to Weber's relationships with Else Jaffe, Mina Tobler, Marianne Weber and his sisters, Klara and Lili; and it is to these relationships that I seek to relate Weber's use of Wagner. However, it is argued that the reference to Wagner in The Protestant Ethic, when understood in the context of Weber's life, is overdetermined, and that it is difficult to specify precisely what Siegmund's speech meant to Weber and to the persons in his immediate circle. It is argued that rather than this indeterminancy undermining the biographical perspective of the paper, the complexity of Weber's relationships and emotions that is uncovered serves to capture the dilemmas of 'real' life., Introductory Comments In this article I take one specific passage from the second revised edition of The Protestant Ethic (Weber 1920) as a point of departure for the exploration of [...]