Public sociology and southern European societies: a critical view

Abstract

The aim of our paper is to analyze the role that a properly reformed public sociology can play in enhancing the perspective of southern European societies. The paper is organized in three parts. In the first part, we summarize the main aspects of Burawoy’s proposal,  while in the second part we will focus on three dimensions (communication, ethical-political and epistemological dimensions), detecting the fundamental dualism that runs through them and which we will try to clarify. In the third part we emphasize the substantial analogy of the three forms of dualism that characterize Burawoy’s proposal and suggest hypotheses of the solutions that have been promoted in the international debate; we will introduce our work in progress hypothesis of solution in accordance with the solution proposed for the epistemological dimension.