Comments on public sociology

Let me begin my introductory remarks by commending our colleagues at NTU for organizing this extremely meaningful forum. For, in spite of all the controversies surrounding the call for public sociology. I believe that behind the idea of public sociology actually lies the collective soul-searching, by our colleagues here and abroad, for the fundamental reasons why sociology is worth pursuing? We are indeed asking ourselves on what basis is sociology BOTH historically meaningful and socially relevant as a scholarly concern AND philosophically significant as a humanistic undertaking? 'The issues are complicated and involving profound intellectual and institutional challenges as well. In the very limited space of time, I would like just to comment on some of the issues skeptics raised against Profissor Michael Burawoy's campaign for public sociology, based on my reading of the essays by Burawoy and others in Social Forces prepared by the organizers here. And I would like to emphasize from the beginning that we should not pretend as if this sort of debate only occurs in sociology. As a matter of fact, in echoing Professor Burawoy' surge to examine the history of disciplinary division of labor. I would even argue that we can help enrich the debate and put the controversies in better perspective if we can step out the disciplinary boundary and adopt a truly comparativistic approach to other disciplines through mutually responsive questioning.