As the hostility against Iran intensifies, let’s support this anti-imperialist call for solidarity with Iranian prisoners, who suffer both from the regime’s repression and from this horrible war of choice. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

bit.ly/4wSoiPW @cihantugal.bsky.social writing for Red Threads.

The World Cup revealed the hypocrisy of our "politically correct" culture

World Cup discourse reproduced a colonial binary of rational Europe versus emotional non-West. Rejecting teams as political proxies, Cihan Tuğal urges dismantling the hierarchy in actual struggles.

bit.ly

I propose to refine the concept "passive revolution" by discussing brilliant analyses by Zophia Edwards, Kevan Harris, @grundrza.bsky.social, Simeon Newman, and Marcel Paret. Passive revolutions, as we can tell from their case studies, are distinct from ++ journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Passive revolution: A contested concept and a research agenda - Cihan Tuğal, 2026

The articles in this volume show that “passive revolution” is a type of social transformation distinct from other paths. In countries ranging from Mexico and So...

journals.sagepub.com

From four years ago: "Turkey Shows What NATO Really Is" Today: The 2026 summit is held in Turkey so that all protests can be repressed while European governments keep their hands clean. www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/o... +

Opinion | Turkey Shows What NATO Really Is (Published 2022)

nytimes.com

I was elected to chair the Theory section of the American Sociological Association (ASA)! I thank my colleagues for granting me this honor. I realize that this comes at a hard time for the ASA. Sociology is under attack from the far right. We are also deeply and seriously divided. Some could 1/6

I signed a contract with Stanford University Press for my book on populism, capitalism, and social movements! This came after ten years of research on roughly a dozen countries, a couple of false leads, discarded sections and country cases, comments on chapter drafts by brilliant colleagues and ++

"it is essential that revolutionaries and socialists adopt a clear stance against all forms of oppression and injustice, remain consistent with their principles, and bring together all left and progressive forces in a broad united front." links.org.au/iran-and-wes...

Iran and the Western left

Anti-imperialism has become a key priority for the global left. Cihan Tuğal looks at how we can best mobilise a mass anti-imperialist movement.

links.org.au

In or anywhere near the SF Bay Area? Join us here: nocoalinoakland.info If a coal terminal is built in Oakland, the toxic waste will spread throughout the area, so this is not just about the East Bay. (We are therefore working on renaming the campaign).

No Coal in Oakland

nocoalinoakland.info

Cihan Tugal@cihantugal.bsky.social · 4mo ago

May Day 2026. As ecosocialists, we are committed to building working class power to fight for nature-friendly cities. We joined the march, rally, and resource fair in Oakland as one part of our broader campaign to unite the forces of labor and the ecology movement to keep coal out of the Bay Area.

May Day 2026. As ecosocialists, we are committed to building working class power to fight for nature-friendly cities. We joined the march, rally, and resource fair in Oakland as one part of our broader campaign to unite the forces of labor and the ecology movement to keep coal out of the Bay Area.

Fellow sociologists... Please note that I am running for Chair of the ASA’s Theory section. Here is my statement: Theory is not simply a subfield of sociology but the integrative force that brings our disparate research programmes into a contentious yet productive dialogue. In a recent essay, 1/6

I am looking forward to this talk by Sinan Birdal. American movements have become paradigmatic for studying all other sexual liberation movements. A German angle uncovers the deep engagement of socialists with those movements as early as the 19th-century, events.berkeley.edu/ies/event/31...

Orbán was admired by right-wing populists in the US and elsewhere. Even though Orbán allegedly “inspired” them, most other far-rightists did not really imitate his regime beyond its superficial traits. Like most critics of Orbán, they reduced Fidesz success to the leader's undermining and mockery 1/

Iranian comrades say: It's our *primary* imperative to stop this imperialist war. At the same time, we should honor the decades-long struggle of the Iranian people for social and political freedom from their rulers. www.instagram.com/reel/DXAyx0_...

This paper on populism is now in print as LEAD ARTICLE (after the presidential address). tandfonline.com/toc/utsq20/6...

The Sociological Quarterly

Volume 67, Issue 2 of The Sociological Quarterly

tandfonline.com

Cihan Tugal@cihantugal.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Our article on populism is published in @socquarterly.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Based on 52 interviews with populists and anti-populists during Trump’s first presidency, we make the following contributions 1) We demonstrate the centrality of emotions in anti-populist politics

Volume 67, issue 2, of TSQ is now LIVE, featuring articles by @cihantugal.bsky.social, @jonathansmucker.bsky.social, @jcallahanbryant.bsky.social, @katherinefurl.bsky.social, @haphazardsoc.bsky.social, @criminovelist.bsky.social, @chinyereagbai.bsky.social, and more! Read it at bit.ly/4m4hdXD

Habermas is a mixed bag. I’ve been teaching him forever, although I had to stop assigning him to undergraduate students because he alienates them from the academia with his uncommunicative (!) prose. My sociology shaped up as a counterpoint to his. His best work is unquestionably his treatise 1/4

ONLINE FIRST In this new TSQ article, Cihan Tuğal (@cihantugal.bsky.social), Jonathan Smucker, and Kip Roberts examine how emotions shape boundary work among populists and anti-populists within the Republican and Democratic parties. Read more at bit.ly/4cg6ir2

My tribute to and critical analysis of Michael Burawoy, published as the lead article in Sociologia. The heart of the piece is a discussion of 1) why/how Burawoy transitioned from his early, “labor process”-focused research programme to a “counter-market” one; ++ ojs.letras.up.pt/index.php/So...

"state terror" Springsteen's wording here reminds us of a basic fact: Despite their frequent vitriol against "terrorists," empires and states are the greatest terrorists in human history.

Bruce Springsteen@brucespringsteen.net · 7mo ago

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Stay free

Syria's HTS is gearing up for its third round of ethnic cleansing with full Western guardianship. For a discussion of the first two rounds, and a sociological explanation of why Western powers would support such murderous forces, see this essay:

Cihan Tugal@cihantugal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

My analysis of Syria’s ongoing transformation, based on sources in Turkish, Arabic, English.🧵 1) After the defeat of the democratic revolution, the transformation has been guided by capitalist geopolitics and the remaking of the global field of Islamism. spectrejournal.com/the-evolutio...

Our article on populism is published in @socquarterly.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Based on 52 interviews with populists and anti-populists during Trump’s first presidency, we make the following contributions 1) We demonstrate the centrality of emotions in anti-populist politics

Populism, Emotions, and Boundary Work Among Political Activists in the Trump Era

How do emotions shape boundary work among populists and anti-populists? Based on 52 in-depth interviews, we analyze how political activists construct their positions through “emotive contestation.”...

tandfonline.com

Great article on why radicalization in the 1960s and 1970s produced very different results for the American Left and Right. Grumbach problematizes the widely held belief that polarization is bad for all parties involved. If you have the organization + journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The fortunes of radicalization: How the party environment determined the fate of radical movements in the late 20th-century United States - Matthew Grumbach, 2026

Radicalization during the 1960s and 1970s is often cited as a cause in the decline of American New Left movements, but right-wing movements also radicalized dur...

journals.sagepub.com

“Social sciences” are predominantly studies of Western behavior rather than human behavior. Example? With the exception of Likud, the strongest far-right parties are outside the West: the AKP in Turkey, BJP in India, etc. But theorizations of the far right largely ignore them. +

Happy 2026 everyone! 2025 was horrible but here are a few things to appreciate about the first 26 years of the 21st century (yes, including 2025): · “Fascist” is still a curse word, despite the rise of the far right throughout the globe. They are still ashamed of who they are. 1/

On my reading list for early 2026: The International Sociological Association's magazine just published a special issue on Michael Burawoy globaldialogue.isa-sociology.org/uploads/imge...

Erdoğan’s AKP had absorbed Brotherhood-type Islamism both into Turkey’s institutional system and into the world order. Can the cooperation between the Syrian HTS and the Turkish AKP tame salafism too and make it serve global capitalism more smoothly? I discuss this question here:

Cihan Tugal@cihantugal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

My analysis of Syria’s ongoing transformation, based on sources in Turkish, Arabic, English.🧵 1) After the defeat of the democratic revolution, the transformation has been guided by capitalist geopolitics and the remaking of the global field of Islamism. spectrejournal.com/the-evolutio...

The Political Education Committee of @dsaeastbay.bsky.social wraps up the Socialist Fundamentals Series with this panel. In the spirit of Marx's third thesis on Feuerbach, the audience educates the educators during this meeting. Bagels + community + fierce debate! www.eastbaydsa.org/events/4716/...

Bourdieusian theorizations of populism are long overdue. I am putting this article on my reading list. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

My essay on Syria, Islamism, and capitalist geopolitics has been translated to Indonesian. indoprogress.com/2025/12/evol...

Evolusi Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham dan Masa Depan Suriah Interaksi antara Islamisme dan Geopolitik Kapitalis Cihan Tuğal

Artikel ini sebelumnya telah dimuat di jurnal Spectre (https://spectrejournal.com/the-evolution-of-hayat-tahrir-al-sham-and-syrias-future/). Diterjemahkan dan diterbitkan ulang di sini untuk tujuan pe...

indoprogress.com

Cihan Tugal@cihantugal.bsky.social · 9mo ago

My analysis of Syria’s ongoing transformation, based on sources in Turkish, Arabic, English.🧵 1) After the defeat of the democratic revolution, the transformation has been guided by capitalist geopolitics and the remaking of the global field of Islamism. spectrejournal.com/the-evolutio...

Küresel cihatçıların küresel kapitalizmle ilişkisi (Video) - Medyascope medyascope.tv/2025/12/07/p... @cihantugal.bsky.social

Prof. Cihan Tuğal ile söyleşi: Küresel cihatçıların küresel kapitalizmle ilişkisi - Medyascope

Prof. Dr. Cihan Tuğal, küresel cihatçılığın hem toplumsal krizler hem de kapitalizmin gerileyişi içinde dönüştüğünü söyledi.

medyascope.tv