Berkeley Sociology mourns the loss of Michael Burawoy, a world-renowned sociologist and professor emeritus who died February 3. Professor Burawoy is famous for his contributions to theory, methods, analyses of labor processes in industrial worksites, and analyses of the university as a workplace..
As ASA President, Burawoy developed and advanced his call for “public sociology” a call that energized more diverse and younger generations of sociologists to practice sociology through proactive engagement with concerns and questions that emanate from communities beyond academia. As ISA President, Burawoy built infrastructure for sustained scholarly exchange between scholars of the “global south” and the “global north.”
Burawoy’s teaching and mentoring were legendary, as were his commitments to the improvement of pedagogy and sustaining accessible, high-quality public education. Read more about Professor Burawoy’s life and legacy as well as the memories and tribes from his students and colleagues..
Prof. Einstein served graduate students as a model of prudence in remaining unfashionably true to the grand…
Making Hispanics
How Activists, Bureaucrats & Media Constructed a New American
Departmental Colloquium Series
Katherine Newman, Elisabeth Jacobs, Elizabeth Emmott-Torres, and Evelyn Bellew, “The Sociological Consequences of Tight Labor Markets: A Study in Two Parts”
Monday March 3rd, 2025 at 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building & Via Zoom
Followed by Department Reception at 3:30pm Rm. 420
Abstract:
Part One: Katherine Newman and Elisabeth Jacobs
Historically tight labor markets emerged in many parts of the United States in 2017 and have
persisted in the form of record low levels of unemployment until 2023. Even in the most recent
period, workers have found it comparatively easy to find jobs, wages have been rising, and
inequality has been falling. These conditions draw sociological attention to the connection
between workers’ ability to land a job and patterns of social mobility, neighborhood trajectories,
and changes in household support, all of which are important to students of poverty. In this
study, we defined and measured tight labor markets and then examined who they benefit, how
long they must last for those benefits to emerge, and whether those advantages “stick” as the
conditions that initially created them start to fade. The behavior of employers and the role of
brokers shifts in dramatic ways when workers are scarce, and growth is high.
Part Two: Katherine Newman, Elizabeth Emmott-Torres, and Evelyn Bellew
The southern U.S. has long been the Achilles heel of the labor movement and the site of
outsourcing from the industrial north, where union density has traditionally been higher and
political regimes more sensitive to the interests of two political parties. In the South, a dominant
one-party political structure and an implacable antagonism towards unions has largely
suppressed the expansion of new or existing unions within the region. Those conditions, in
addition to cheap land, taxes, and labor and a general culture of lax regulations, have attracted
what were otherwise highly unionized foreign auto manufacturers to the southern states.
We would like to workshop some initial findings of a two case studies we are engaged in, one in
the Mercedes plant in Vance, Alabama, which suffered a narrow loss in a UAW election in 2024
and the other, the New Flyer Electric Bus plant in Anniston, Alabama, where the CWA won a
resounding union victory at the same time.