Michael Burawoy and marxist epistemology: introductory note

Abstract

The debate surrounding the scientific status of Marxism remains alive. Since Engels set out to systematize, disseminate, and develop Marx's legacy, the relationship between historical materialism and the production of scientific knowledge has fueled countless controversies, both between Marxists and their detractors and among the various theoretical perspectives that make up the lineage of scientific socialism. The dispute with positivist science—which persists to the same extent that anti-Marxists proclaim the death of materialist theory—is predictable. Lenin's classic pamphlet on the three constituent sources of Marxism warns, right from the outset, that historical materialism arouses hostility and revulsion on the part of all bourgeois science, which accuses it of being a “worldview,” precisely because it unveils and combats the material conditions that underpin the supposed impartiality of the scientific field. However, even within Marxism, different theoretical currents offer distinct and divergent responses to the scientific nature of Marxist theory. There are traditions that speak of the philosophy of praxis, criticism of capitalist society, the science of society, or even the true consciousness of the working class. The subject is controversial, but there are those who navigate this slippery terrain with skill, competence, and propriety. Such is the case of Michael Burawoy (1947-2025), a Marxist sociologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, for 47 years.