ABSTRACT
The emergence of Michael Burawoy's public sociology raises a single, overarching question: Why is there a perceived need for an institutionalized public sociology within the discipline? Burawoy's answer is tied to an issue raised by Turner and Turner in their historical examination of the institutionalization of sociology. This chapter examines sociology's problem of public relations by exploring the development of public sociology with respect to the questions of publics, public opinion formation, and the contemporary public intellectual. It explores sociology's identity crisis and its relationship to public sociology. The issues of multivocality, disciplinary coherence, and the hegemonic structure of its institutionalization come to the foreground. Of particular concern are the misrepresentations of scientific knowledge within sociology and their contributions to hegemonic structure of the sociological discipline. The chapter suggests that Burawoy's endeavor to legitimize sociology through a greater public engagement is a necessary project, but much too idealistic.
