I was elected to chair the Theory section of the American Sociological Association (ASA)! I thank my colleagues for granting me this honor. I realize that this comes at a hard time for the ASA. Sociology is under attack from the far right. We are also deeply and seriously divided. Some could 1/6

I signed a contract with Stanford University Press for my book on populism, capitalism, and social movements! This came after ten years of research on roughly a dozen countries, a couple of false leads, discarded sections and country cases, comments on chapter drafts by brilliant colleagues and ++

"it is essential that revolutionaries and socialists adopt a clear stance against all forms of oppression and injustice, remain consistent with their principles, and bring together all left and progressive forces in a broad united front." links.org.au/iran-and-wes...

In or anywhere near the SF Bay Area? Join us here: nocoalinoakland.info If a coal terminal is built in Oakland, the toxic waste will spread throughout the area, so this is not just about the East Bay. (We are therefore working on renaming the campaign).

May Day 2026. As ecosocialists, we are committed to building working class power to fight for nature-friendly cities. We joined the march, rally, and resource fair in Oakland as one part of our broader campaign to unite the forces of labor and the ecology movement to keep coal out of the Bay Area.

Fellow sociologists... Please note that I am running for Chair of the ASA’s Theory section. Here is my statement: Theory is not simply a subfield of sociology but the integrative force that brings our disparate research programmes into a contentious yet productive dialogue. In a recent essay, 1/6

I am looking forward to this talk by Sinan Birdal. American movements have become paradigmatic for studying all other sexual liberation movements. A German angle uncovers the deep engagement of socialists with those movements as early as the 19th-century, events.berkeley.edu/ies/event/31...

Orbán was admired by right-wing populists in the US and elsewhere. Even though Orbán allegedly “inspired” them, most other far-rightists did not really imitate his regime beyond its superficial traits. Like most critics of Orbán, they reduced Fidesz success to the leader's undermining and mockery 1/

Iranian comrades say: It's our *primary* imperative to stop this imperialist war. At the same time, we should honor the decades-long struggle of the Iranian people for social and political freedom from their rulers. www.instagram.com/reel/DXAyx0_...

This paper on populism is now in print as LEAD ARTICLE (after the presidential address). tandfonline.com/toc/utsq20/6...

Volume 67, issue 2, of TSQ is now LIVE, featuring articles by @cihantugal.bsky.social, @jonathansmucker.bsky.social, @jcallahanbryant.bsky.social, @katherinefurl.bsky.social, @haphazardsoc.bsky.social, @criminovelist.bsky.social, @chinyereagbai.bsky.social, and more! Read it at bit.ly/4m4hdXD

Habermas is a mixed bag. I’ve been teaching him forever, although I had to stop assigning him to undergraduate students because he alienates them from the academia with his uncommunicative (!) prose. My sociology shaped up as a counterpoint to his. His best work is unquestionably his treatise 1/4

ONLINE FIRST In this new TSQ article, Cihan Tuğal (@cihantugal.bsky.social), Jonathan Smucker, and Kip Roberts examine how emotions shape boundary work among populists and anti-populists within the Republican and Democratic parties. Read more at bit.ly/4cg6ir2

My tribute to and critical analysis of Michael Burawoy, published as the lead article in Sociologia. The heart of the piece is a discussion of 1) why/how Burawoy transitioned from his early, “labor process”-focused research programme to a “counter-market” one; ++ ojs.letras.up.pt/index.php/So...

"state terror" Springsteen's wording here reminds us of a basic fact: Despite their frequent vitriol against "terrorists," empires and states are the greatest terrorists in human history.

Syria's HTS is gearing up for its third round of ethnic cleansing with full Western guardianship. For a discussion of the first two rounds, and a sociological explanation of why Western powers would support such murderous forces, see this essay:

Our article on populism is published in @socquarterly.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Based on 52 interviews with populists and anti-populists during Trump’s first presidency, we make the following contributions 1) We demonstrate the centrality of emotions in anti-populist politics

Great article on why radicalization in the 1960s and 1970s produced very different results for the American Left and Right. Grumbach problematizes the widely held belief that polarization is bad for all parties involved. If you have the organization + journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

“Social sciences” are predominantly studies of Western behavior rather than human behavior. Example? With the exception of Likud, the strongest far-right parties are outside the West: the AKP in Turkey, BJP in India, etc. But theorizations of the far right largely ignore them. +

Happy 2026 everyone! 2025 was horrible but here are a few things to appreciate about the first 26 years of the 21st century (yes, including 2025): · “Fascist” is still a curse word, despite the rise of the far right throughout the globe. They are still ashamed of who they are. 1/

On my reading list for early 2026: The International Sociological Association's magazine just published a special issue on Michael Burawoy globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/uploads/imge...

Erdoğan’s AKP had absorbed Brotherhood-type Islamism both into Turkey’s institutional system and into the world order. Can the cooperation between the Syrian HTS and the Turkish AKP tame salafism too and make it serve global capitalism more smoothly? I discuss this question here:

The Political Education Committee of @dsaeastbay.bsky.social wraps up the Socialist Fundamentals Series with this panel. In the spirit of Marx's third thesis on Feuerbach, the audience educates the educators during this meeting. Bagels + community + fierce debate! www.eastbaydsa.org/events/4716/...

Bourdieusian theorizations of populism are long overdue. I am putting this article on my reading list. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

My essay on Syria, Islamism, and capitalist geopolitics has been translated to Indonesian. indoprogress.com/2025/12/evol...

Küresel cihatçıların küresel kapitalizmle ilişkisi (Video) - Medyascope medyascope.tv/2025/12/07/p... @cihantugal.bsky.social

ICYMI: @cihantugal.bsky.social 's analysis on the movement dynamics of HTS and Syria's current political conjunction is still live on our website.

Check out this new article by CRWS faculty affiliate @cihantugal.bsky.social, "The Evolution of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Syria’s Future: The Interplay between Islamism and Capitalist Geopolitics."

"Fourteen years ago, Syrians rose up with democratic demands. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the West sought to hijack these demands for capital accumulation and empire-making. But a major unexpected winner of this process might instead, or along with these actors, be a new kind of Islamism."

November is in the books! Thanks to Keith Rosenthal, Ralf Ruckus, @yige-dong.bsky.social , John Mullen, and @cihantugal.bsky.social for letting us put your work on the web. And thanks to all the contributors to our twelfth issue! Links in thread 👇🏽 🧵

The HTS regime in Damascus is the culmination of a long process of theo-political maturation and salafism’s integration into world capitalism. Violently militant forms of salafism constitute a relatively recent development in Islamic theology. They first crystallized through a differentiation 1/4

The point is not that "al-Jolani has not changed," but that those changes are mostly in line with the interests of world capitalism rather than Syrians' democratic struggles. Moreover, there are strong signs that he retains important elements of his original mission. +

My analysis of Syria’s ongoing transformation, based on sources in Turkish, Arabic, English.🧵 1) After the defeat of the democratic revolution, the transformation has been guided by capitalist geopolitics and the remaking of the global field of Islamism. spectrejournal.com/the-evolutio...

It was great to work with Spectre again!

The theory of populism needs to be reconstructed by attention to some of the cases neglected in generalizing debates: India, Turkey, South Africa, China, and Iran. I point out in this article that the dominant theories of populism are based on the West 1/ www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

We won. Every union representing workers at the University of California sued the Trump administration in September. Today, judge Rita Lin issued a preliminary injunction barring Trump’s attempts to extort political leverage from public higher education. democracyforward.org/updates/cour...

Observations from the @dsaeastbay.bsky.social general meeting today: The organizers opened the event by stating that electing socialists to office is only the beginning. The power holders will fight every socialist-hued policy they attempt. The people will need to mobilize to counterbalance those 1/

DSA meetings in the coming weeks will be essential to building a mass movement across the nation. We have Zohran's energy and the @socialists.nyc victory filling our sails. This is the moment to participate in @demsocialists.bsky.social meetings wherever you are. Check your local chapter's calendar!

Marxism tends to dismiss generosity—and charity even more so. In this article, I show that a reconstructed Marxism is necessary for a proper understanding of religious generosity: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1... The article is an offshoot of the book below.

I presented my in-progress book manuscript on right-wing regimes at the University of Chicago's sociology department. The room was packed! I got excellent questions, and thinking about them will make the book better. I got to meet several brilliant graduate students, and caught up with +

Is Bourdieu incompatible with Marxism? No. Analytical demonstration: My book on religious generosity. Field analysis with a world-historical market-making and market-contestation angle. www.routledge.com/Caring-for-t...

Mamdani’s victory against Cuomo-Trump shows: Socialism is the only thing that can defeat the marriage of authoritarianism and corruption. Mamdani didn’t win alone. At least 50K @demsocialists.bsky.social-organized volunteers helped him win. So did unions and other movement organizations. 1/

What is at the root of the historic violence of the last two years in the Middle East? In a recent panel on the Global Turn to the Right, I argued that an integrative analysis of 1) movement dynamics, 2) accumulation regimes, and 3) each nation’s place in inter-imperialist rivalry gives us

The rich are selling out to Trump one by one. It would be very idiotic for the resistance to count on them. Here's a recent piece from the Times, deifying Bill Gates. They might regret this today. But they will soon tell us to rally behind yet another rich hero. Don't fall for it.

7 million marched on Saturday to protest authoritarianism! We participated with the Civil Rights era anthem “We Shall Overcome” and (what in the US has become) the Latinx-Hispanic anthem “El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido.” +

Nancy Chodorow, the great feminist sociologist, passed. Her first book is a must-read for not only social scientists but for everyone. If you are a parent, or ever intend to be one, or if you simply want to be a better person and keep wondering what’s preventing you, make sure to read this classic.

This panel on the global turn to the Right starts in 30 minutes. I am presenting on the violence of the last few years in Syria and Israel/Palestine.

I was invited to deliver the keynote speech for a three-day conference on Michael Burawoy. Another verse of a long goodbye to my dearest colleague, friend, and comrade… Thanks to Portuguese sociologists for organizing this conference. Details of the conference 🧵

University of California professors, students, staff, and workers are resisting higher education's increasing complicity with the Trump administration. A damage to one is damage to all. We will not leave our colleagues, students, and coworkers alone. cucfa.solidarity.tech/academic-fre...

My sociological explanation of the recent surge of violence against Palestinians, Alawites, and the Druze ... coming up as a part of this panel: