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In Memoriam of T.K. Oommen

We received the sad news of the passing of our former President, T. K. Oommen. He had served as Secretary-General of the 1986 World Congress of Sociology in New Delhi and was elected President of the ISA in 1990.

“The second ISA President from the Global South, and the first — and to this day the only — President from India and Asia, T. K. Oommen remains one of the most influential leaders in the history of the Association. He assumed the presidency at a pivotal historical moment, as the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled a new global era — one that also called for a renewed vision of international sociology.

Among his most significant contributions was his unwavering insistence that international sociology must not become synonymous with the Westernisation of the discipline. He raised awareness on the global imbalance in the production of social sciences, contributed to the “academic dependency theory”, and promoted the contribution of Indian sociology. He championed the idea of a global dialogue in which India and countries of the Global South would play a central and equal role. His intellectual and institutional leadership helped to shape the trajectory of the ISA for decades to come.

To this day, his successors at the ISA have built upon its legacy. The ISA — and global sociology more broadly — would not be what it is today without him."

Geoffrey Pleyers,
ISA President 2023-2027

To honour the legacy of former ISA President T. K. Oommen (1937-2026), we are sharing two of his articles published in Current Sociology & now available in #OpenAccess until the end of March 2026.

In celebration of the life and work of T. K. Oommen, explore his reflections on global sociology, academic dependency, and the role of the Global South in shaping the discipline: