Berkeley’s Sociology Department is known around the world for its excellence in research and teaching. Our faculty advance cutting edge research and teach in most sociological specialities. Our PhDs are leaders in universities and research centers across the US and in many other countries. And our BAs populate the ranks of innumerable professions, bringing with them the skills and special perspective of Berkeley sociology.
We are proud to make these contributions from the world’s leading public university. At Berkeley, we combine intellectual rigor with a commitment to public service through our research, teaching, and service on campus and beyond.
For the past six decades, Berkeley’s Sociology Department has consistently been ranked among the world’s top sociology departments. Our graduate program is ranked #1 in the latest U.S. News and World Report, and our undergrad degree is currently the best in the US according to College Factual and features on Grad Reports’ Best College List 2020.
Prof. Einstein served graduate students as a model of prudence in remaining unfashionably true to the grand…
Becoming a Citizen
How can societies that welcome immigrants from around the world create civic cohesion and political community out of ethnic and racial diversity? Becoming a Citizen is the first book to provide a comparative perspective on how the United States and Canada encourage foreigners to become citizens. Based on vivid in-depth interviews with Portuguese immigrants and Vietnamese refugees in Boston and Toronto and on statistical analysis and documentary data, Becoming a Citizen shows that greater state support for settlement and an official government policy...
Departmental Colloquium Series
Michael McCarthy, "How Finance Wrecked Democracy & How to Rebuild It "
Monday February 3rd, 2025 at 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building & Via Zoom
Followed by a Reception at 3:30pm Room 420
Abstract:
Why is democracy so broken and how might it be fixed? In this talk, Michael A. McCarthy argues the answer can be found in the flows of credit and investment bound up with finance capital. Today, finance guides and constrains our politics, but there is no reason why this must be so. In the talk, McCarthy develops a critical social theory of emancipatory transformation rooted in the interconnectedness of finance and democracy. Inspired by ancient Athens, where small groups chosen by lottery were used to ensure democratic participation, he shows how democracy and working-class power can be strengthened by introducing new forms of financial governance, focusing on the inclusion of historically excluded groups. The talk’s proposals for democratic financial institutions point the way to imbuing finance with a socio-environmental purpose that might fund a just green transition, social housing, and other necessary but underfunded public goods. This talk is based on his recently published book, The Master’s Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (and a Radical Plan to Rebuild It).