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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal
@cihantugal.bsky.social
5.3K followers 520 following 260 posts
Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley Working on a book on right-wing populism https://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/cihan-tugal
sociology.berkeley.edu
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · Nov 27
What are the social dynamics behind the resilience of today’s elected authoritarian regimes?
In order to answer this question, I develop the concept “democratic autocracy.”
This regime type is a populist update to fascism under neoliberal conditions. 1/6
t.co/8L4B3UZ1GH
https://brill.com/view/journals/hima/aop/article-10.1163-1569206x-20242360/article-10.1163-1569206x-20242360.xml
t.co
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 1d
University of California, Berkeley, who will be in Portugal specifically for this conference and will offer us a reflection on Michael's heretical digressions as a researcher-worker on capitalism, socialism, and colonialism.
Entry is free!
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 1d
the constant exercise of sociological imagination, his affability in polemics and the consistency of his commitments.
The closing ceremony, at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto, will feature a lecture by Cihan Tuğal, Burawoy's colleague in the Department of Sociology at the
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 1d
IS-UP), with the support of the Portuguese Sociology Association, this cycle seeks to cross perspectives, experiences and readings, paying homage to a sociologist whom we have learned to admire and who, moreover, leaves a great longing for his generous erudition, the rigor of his research,
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 1d
critical analysis of capitalism, the labor process, and production policies; and the importance of worker ethnography, revisits, and extended case studies.
Spread across three cities – Coimbra, Lisbon and Porto – and organized by three leading institutions of Portuguese sociology (CES, CIES and
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 1d
and practices of sociological dialogue with non-academic audiences.
The "Three Cheers to Burawoy!" series aims to highlight the relevance of this legacy and open a space for collective debate around three central axes of his contribution: reflection on modes of knowledge and public sociology;
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 1d
the division of sociological labor, and the development of a "public sociology," of which he was a leading proponent. His work has influenced generations of researchers in various geographies, including Portugal, where it has been mobilized in sociological research projects, theoretical debates,
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 1d
THREE CHEERS TO BURAWOY!
short cycle of tribute to Michael Burawoy
Michael Burawoy is a central figure in contemporary sociology. Over the decades, his work has shaped the analysis of labor, capitalism, and production processes, as well as reflections on modes of knowledge, ethnography,
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 1d
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 🧵
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 4d
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...
Academic Freedom and the Release of Names - Council of UC Faculty Associations
cucfa.solidarity.tech
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 5d
Co-sponsored by @asatheory.bsky.social, ASA GATS, and Global Critical Studies & Praxis
cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 6d
My sociological explanation of the recent surge of violence against Palestinians, Alawites, and the Druze ... coming up as a part of this panel:
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
They are coming for us. But we will not passively sit and wait for them.
13/13
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
All this was no mere theoretical exercise. The night ended with listing the local and national venues where people have been organizing along the lines suggested above, naming the contact people and encouraging people to sign up. And people did sign up.
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
Personally speaking, I prefer the current structure, since it allows us to grow through our tensions and disagreement, rather than excluding anyone or fighting each other too nastily. But there might indeed be a tipping point where this structure is no longer effective against a violent regime. 11/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
strategy might be required to fight a more fully fascist regime. Some comrades, currently in the fringe, have indeed been pushing for a more explicit laying out of the differences between the ideological and strategic options, and a more democratically centralized adoption of one of them. 10/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
(e.g. mass organization at the expense of electoralism or vice versa), whereas our chapter has been thriving through integrating all these approaches. But what is today a strength might become a problem as the regime in fact slides more and more to fascism. A more coordinated and streamlined 9/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
-- as in the case of liberal universities openly cooperating with Trump’s exclusionary politics.
One strength of East Bay DSA has been the coexistence of the countervailing approaches discussed above. I know of some DSA chapters where the needle almost exclusively points in one direction 8/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
work is bound to shore up liberal institutions and organizations. Supporting mainstream institutions is certainly good to the extent that it temporarily blocks some fascist advances. But it is damaging in that the existing (and decaying) liberalism in the US further prepares the scene for fascism 7/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
meetings without getting killed by militias indicates that we are not living under a fascist regime yet. And at this point, working on mass organization is a bigger priority than working on elections and/or coalitions with liberals, since given our current state of mass disorganization, electoral 6/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
the years in New Politics, @jacobinmag.bsky.social, and @evrensel.net – has been that the regime is a Bonapartist/oligarchic dictatorship with fascist tendencies. It is true that those tendencies have become stronger in recent months. However, the fact that (for now) we can even hold these 5/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
mass organization, i.e. of workplaces, neighborhoods, and communities. This was also one of the main four venues of organization that Glass thought we should prioritize. So, there were mostly differences of emphasis rather than principle in the room.
My personal position – communicated throughout 4/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
since it has been published. He emphasized four main venues of organization against increasing state repression, one of which – the electoral one – made many people in the room somewhat uncomfortable. There were objections, since many in the EBDSA believe that that the main emphasis must be on 3/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
(The latter three texts provided different answers to these questions). Fred Glass made a 40-minute presentation. We then broke up into small groups to discuss the points he made. While strongly sympathetic to Seymour’s book, F Glass thinks that we have taken quite big strides towards fascism 2/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 18d
In a meeting attended by close to 100 people, @dsaeastbay.bsky.social discussed whether the Trump regime is “fascist,” and what difference that label makes in terms of how we organize. We read texts by Ernest Mandel, Fred Glass, @leninology.bsky.social and me to frame the discussion. 1/
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cihantugal.bsky.social
Cihan Tugal @cihantugal.bsky.social · 20d
"Gezi, as both rebellion and the beginnings of a movement, exemplifies a popular response to this morbid intersection.”

I also discuss the upsides and limits of horizontalism.