Honoring Michael Burawoy (1947–2025): Production regime theory and its influence on labor studies and public sociology in China

This introduction honors Michael Burawoy’s life and scholarship by examining the influence of his labor process theory, production regime framework, extended case method, and public sociology on China labor studies. We first situate Burawoy’s work within Marxist sociology, tracing his movement from Manufacturing Consent to The Politics of Production , his comparative analysis of capitalism and state socialism, and his later reflections on the limits of factory-based ethnography. We then provide a bibliometric sketch of Burawoy’s reception in China-related scholarship using Google Scholar, Web of Science, and CNKI data. The analysis shows that his influence has been sustained, multidimensional, and especially visible in studies of labor control, migrant workers, factory regimes, case-based ethnography, public sociology, and digital and platform labor. A brief comparison with Harry Braverman highlights Burawoy’s broader and more modular influence in China studies. Finally, we introduce the seven articles in this special issue, which extend, revise, and critically engage Burawoy’s concepts in relation to China’s changing labor regimes, state-capital relations, transnational migration, digital labor, and class formation.