ASA president-elect will speak on public sociology in a global context, Oct. 3

Michael Burawoy, professor of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley and president elect of the American Sociological Association, will present the Polson Memorial Lecture at Cornell, Friday, Oct. 3, at 3 p.m. in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Burawoy is well-known for his examination of the restructuring of labor organization and practices in the United States and Eastern Europe and for his use of the extended case method involving extensive participant observation. Recently, a book he edited and provided the introduction and conclusion for, Global Ethnography, has made a major contribution to the growing study of global processes in local contexts. The book consists of nine chapters by young scholars who all were part of a dissertation discussion group led by Burawoy at UC-Berkeley.

Burawoy's platform for his election to the ASA presidency challenged sociology, and other social sciences, to engage more closely with society's critical issues. His Polson lecture topic, "Public Sociology in a Global Context," will address the question of why and how sociology/social sciences might address public concerns in a globalizing era.

Following Burawoy's lecture, a panel of Cornell faculty members will react to his ideas. They include: Max Pfeffer, professor of development sociology and associate director of research in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Lourdes Beneria, professor of city and regional planning and director of the Program on Gender and Global Change; Davydd Greenwood, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology and director of the Institute for European Studies; and David Lewis, professor of city and regional planning and director of the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs.

For further information, contact the Robert A. and Ruth E. Polson Institute for Global Development at Cornell at 255-1400.