Against the Backdrop of Niagara Falls, International Sociology Marches Left

Abstract

Based on his observations at the XIX World Sociological Congress and on his many years of experience on the Executive Committee of the International Sociological Association, the author shares his subjective notes on current trends in modern sociology. Can the World Congress of Sociology accurately reflect the state of the science it purports to represent? Over the past few years, the politicization of the ISA agenda has tended to increase in tandem with an inexorable decrease in the scientifically-substantive content of the Congress. World sociology itself is in the process of the transformation into an nebulous form of public activity, into a kind of social movement for universal justice contending with a world of violence and inequity. Nevertheless, the active grassroots work of research committees within the ISA continues despite the ideological inclination of its higher echelons.