Response: Public sociology: populist fad or path to renewal?

This article, a response to several other papers -- in the present volume -- dealing with Burawoy's research, addresses Craig Calhoun's concern about sociologists laying siege to the commanding heights of the discipline of sociology, & his suggestion that public sociology is but a "current fad" rooted in "feel-good populism." The article thus defends the seriousness & coherence of public sociology as a distinct realm within a national & global disciplinary division of sociological labor, & as an external antidote to subversion, in addition to addressing the comments of other respondents. The article begins with a discussion of the recent American Sociological Association meetings in San Francisco, & says that the conference's excitment over public sociology was largely ignored by the public, & thus the "privatization of public sociology" was laid bare. The remainder of the article discusses the nature of public sociology, the distinction of public sociology from professional sociology, & the contestation of American sociology's hegemonic frameworks by alternative frameworks both from within & from outside the US. 1 Figure, 10 References. T. K. Brown