Sociology World grieves after hit-and-run driver at Grand Avenue kills legendary Labor Scholar

For the past 30 years, one of the world’s most influential Marxist sociologists lived in a modest corner apartment that builds a block or so from Oaklands Lake Merritt. Michael Burawoy, a British scholar who is known for his work to bring, as he put it, “Visions from the store floor to Academy,” was a beloved community member who loved Oakland back.

On Monday night, Burawoy was hit and killed by a driver at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Park View Terrace while using crosswalk.

The Oakland police told Oaklandside that paramedics responded to stage at 1 p.m. 19.15 and took Burawoy to a local hospital where he died. The driver, who moved west towards the Grand towards Broadway, fled from the stage and has not been identified.

Burawoy, who retired from UC Berkeley Sociology Department in 2023, was 77.

News about his death moved quickly through the sociology community. Colleagues mourned over the sound attenuation of an important voice against injustice.

“He left us at a time when we needed most of his leadership, his energy, his tireless work to understand our world, his example as an extraordinary teacher, his belief in a relevant public sociology, his openness to a global dialogue , his energy against injustice, ”said Geoffrey Pleyers, the Belgium-based President of the International Sociological Association, On Bluesky. Burawoy was a former leader of the group between 2010 and 2014.

Ana-Cristina SantosThe chairman of sociology at the University of Coimbra in Central Portugal, said at Bluesky that Burawoy was one of “the greatest.” Without him, she wrote, “We wouldn’t have the public and committed sociology I believe in.”

UC Berkeley Social Sciences Dean Raka Ray released a statement distributed by the university, where she said she “rolled” from the news of her mentor’s death and that it was a “huge loss” to “sociologists around the world, from England to South Africa and from India to Brazil.

“Michael dedicated 47 years of his life to Berkeley, which contributed immensely to the discipline and transforms the areas of labor, ethnography and theory,” Ray said in the statement. “However, his biggest legacy went far beyond the many books and articles he published or prestigious awards he received – it was in the people whose lives he changed. He was an extraordinary teacher who mentored and inspired thousands of students and changed their lives with his hard intellect and kindness. ”

The university is planning a memorial for Burawoy. In 2023, an talent In his honor, the Sociology Department was established so that young scientists could pursue the subject with the same strength and purpose.

Burawoy, who studied under the influential sociologist William Julius Wilson, is best known for his seminal book from 1979, Preparation of consent: changes in the work process under monopoly capitalismAt Based on his experience of working in a Chicago machine shop. In that, he argued that workers subconsciously participated in their own exploitation by accepting the management’s framing of their work as a competition, among other types of manipulation. It was part of his career -long effort to “To restore visions below” It could open opportunities for the future.

In the past 20 years Burawoy began to go in for what he called a “Public sociology“Separate from a” political sociology “that mainly approached decision makers. Public sociology tried to bring the discipline into conversation with wider audiences.

Margaret Abraham, a sociologist at Hofstra University, said in a Article For the global dialogue, the international sociology magazine was that Burawoy’s public sociology evangelization was in its core “humanistic.” It wanted to build a “better world where there will be less socially produced suffering.”

“This again involves a sociology that struggles with the real problems of social exclusion, great inequalities in wealth and opportunities, commodification and a market -centered world. Sociology’s great mission is to proactively participate in the struggle to protect society from the destruction created by market fundamentalism, ”she wrote.

Recently, Burawoy trained his lens to stop the “barbaric cruelty” in Gaza and said sociology should also play a role.

“Sociology teaches us that immediate and permanent ceasefire, if not sufficiently, is certainly necessary, not only for the protection of Palestinian life, but for Israel’s Savior and not only for Israel, but for Jews everywhere, which is facing ever greater anti -Semitism, Precisely because of the barbaric cruelty performed in their name. Megalomania from colonialism can be stopped either by mutual destruction or external intervention, ”Burawoy wrote on Sociologists for Palestine place.

Local safe streets, advocates that have been pushing politicians to improve Oakland’s historically underfunded infrastructure networks of streets in recent years, talked about the collision.

Carter Lavin, a local transit lawyer who has led the efforts to add protected bicycle paths and shorter crossings on the Grand, told us that Burawoy’s death was particularly heartbreaking because it was preventable. He noted that parents who use this crosswalk to take their children to Fairyland -Temaparken have been calling for years to improve the intersection.

“The city is considering proposed safety redesign to the corridor, including fixing this intersection to shorten the distance people have to cross, but the plans do not keep us safe,” said Lavin, a resident of the Adam’s Point Quarter that Burawoy lived in.

The Oakland Department of Transportation has also investigated the addition of a bike track on Grand Avenue, with employees running research over the last few years, and finds that the average car is moving approx. 8 miles above the speed limit.

Local Lawyer Organizations including Walk Oakland, Bike Oakland, Traffic Violence Rapid Response, Bike East Bay and Transport are Petition The city to quickly track these changes to the Grand. It is one of a series of actions taken around Lake Merritt to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Recently, the city improved green on the other side of the lake after a young girl was killed in a collision.