Book Review Symposium 1

My heart is heavy and resistance great to reworking the paper I gave at the celebration of Eddie Webster's last book, Recasting Workers' Power (written with Lynford Dor).I was so lucky to be in Johannesburg to attend the festivities in October 2023 organized by Eddie's colleagues and students, to commemorate his lasting influence, his shaping of generation after generation.It was a glorious event -connecting the past to the present, at every moment exuding Eddie's inexhaustible energy.We had no inkling that his future would be curtailed, that Eddie would not be with us five months later.We couldn't imagine, and, at that time, we didn't have to imagine, a world without Eddie, continually reinventing himself.He was a permanent fixture, supporting and inspiring so many.How does one write a review of a book when the author is no longer around?Who are reviews for, after all?Are they for the reader who does not want to read, who has no time to read?Or are they intended to inspire the reader to read the real thing?Reviews should tell us what the book is about, contextualize it in relation to other works, and perhaps add some thoughts about its limitations.There are too many books to read so we need reviews.But I also think of the review as a conversation, or even a critique -an engagement with the author.Last time I reviewed one of Eddie's books I overstepped the mark and got into a lot of hot water with his friends (Burawoy, 2010a).This time I want to project Eddie's sociological legacy into the future by interrogating Recasting Workers' Power.But that requires acquaintance with his earlier trajectory.On the occasion of Eddie's formal retirement in 2010, I wrote an extended tribute to a life of rare accomplishments (Burawoy, 2010b).Here I can only give a capsule summary.I first got to know Eddie in 1968.That was before he became a sociologist, but even then, he had a propensity for sociological adventure.We took an unforgettable trip to the Transkei, knocking on the doors of politicians late into the evenings, listening to Afrikaner administrators tell of their (dubious) achievements, peering into the politics of a "model" Bantustan.A field trip with Eddie, as his students will testify, is always exciting, illuminating and often hilarious."Critical engagement" doesn't quite capture his mode of inoffensive probing.He perfected the interventionist, ethnographic interview.Through joint ventures in the field as well as his lucid teaching, Eddie has brought so many young South Africans -of all races -into sociology.No one has influenced South African sociology more than Eddie Webster -an influence on full display in Recasting Workers' Power, whose chapters embody his pedagogy of collaboration and dialogue.Eddie's turn to social science began in 1969 at Oxford where he took an MA in Philosophy,

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.