Sari Hanafi

We will at last meet in person. When finally deciding on the date for this XX ISA World Congress of Sociology, many questions remained: Should it be online, hybrid or in-person? Who cannot make it? Who is still fearful of coming too close to others? After almost three years of online meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this major in-person event appears as a historic moment. We envisaged different scenarios, but for now the outcome is most encouraging...

Michael Burawoy is not simply a social theorist who feeds sociology with many theoretical insights into labor sociology and political economy, he actually reshapes the practice of sociology across the world. When I started reading Public Sociology: Between Utopia and Anti-Utopia, I could not put it down until I had read the last page. Read as a novel, the book turns the last half century of Burawoy’s trajectory into an object of analysis...

The Russian criminal invasion of Ukraine that has rocked the world is not only an isolated war but also an exceptional one. It is exceptional based on its capacity to turn into a third World War and more specifically, in its risk of becoming a nuclear one. The eastward expansion of NATO is a provocation, or at least what the Palestinian philosopher Azmi Bishara (2022) called “determination to not avoid the road to war,” yet it does not at all...

Alain Caillé is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense and editor of La Revue du MAUSS (Anti-Utilitarian Movement in Social Science). He is known for his radical criticism of contemporary economics and utilitarianism in the social sciences. He is the originator of the Convivialist Manifesto. On the occasion of the release of the second...

The surreal atmosphere of the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed fault lines in trust among human beings, among countries, and between citizens and governments; it is pushing us to raise big questions about ourselves, our social relationships, and life generally. This crisis is not just limited to public and environmental health or the economy; what we are witnessing is a moment of truth regarding the crisis of late modernity and its...

Many events have troubled our sociological community in the last few months. Three prominent sociologists have passed away: Immanuel Wallerstein, Aníbal Quijano, and Erik Olin Wright. Yet, the International Sociological Association (ISA) is particularly indebted to Wallerstein, who was its president between 1994 and 1998. He is the author of the much celebrated four-volume masterpiece The Modern World-System...

I was honored to be elected as the President of the International Sociological Association (ISA) during its congress in July 2018 in Toronto. In the following paragraphs I would like to outline the program that I introduced in my speech as a candidate for this position, and to highlight a three-point agenda concerning sociologies in dialogue, moving towards a post-authoritarian approach, and the current crisis in secularization theory. ...

Sari Hanafi is currently a Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Media Studies at the American University of Beirut. He is also the editor of Idafat: the Arab Journal of Sociology (in Arabic), and Vice-President of both the International Sociological Association and the Arab Council of Social Science. His research interests include the sociology of migration, the politics of scientific...

François Burgat is a political sociologist and senior researcher at the French Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), who has devoted his career to the analysis of political systems and civil societies in the Arab world. He is one of those rare scholars capable of understanding the Islamic movements without romanticizing or vilifying them, courageously confronting mainstream interpretations. Currently principal...

Dr. Mustafa O. Attir is Professor of Sociology at the University of Tripoli, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development Research, and former President of the Arab Sociological Association. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the impact of modernization and oil on the Libyan society. He is interviewed by Sari Hanafi, Professor of Sociology at the American University in Beirut, member of the ISA Executive...

Over the last four months political earthquakes have shaken the Arab World. These revolutions have toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt and are making their way to Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Jordan and Syria. No matter how one defines the success of these uprisings, it is clear that they are forcing dictatorial regimes toward political reform. The importance of these revolutions resides in the meeting of social and democratic demands. We should...

The newly established “World Social Sciences and Humanities Network” (World SSH Net) in cooperation with UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) and the Science Council of Argentina (CONICET) held a three-day workshop (28-30 October, 2010) on “Cultural elements in social sciences and in academic labor – epistemological and educational challenges to constructing a scientific multi-versalism”...