
Christian Baudelot (born 9 December 1938 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) is a French sociologist based at the
École normale supérieure
École or Ecole may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
. Many of his works have been written in collaboration with
Roger Establet.
Biography
A specialist in education and the
Sociology
Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
of work, he is Professor Emeritus of Sociology in the Social Sciences Department of the
École normale supérieure (Paris)
The – PSL (; also known as ENS, , Ulm or ENS Paris) is a ''grande école'' in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL). Due to its selectivity, historical role, and influence within F ...
and a researcher at the Maurice-Halbwachs Centre (
French National Centre for Scientific Research
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...
/
School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (, EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and '' grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The school awards Master and PhD degrees alone and conjo ...
/
École normale supérieure (Paris)
The – PSL (; also known as ENS, , Ulm or ENS Paris) is a ''grande école'' in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL). Due to its selectivity, historical role, and influence within F ...
). An alumnus of the École normale supérieure de la rue d'Ulm (1960-1964), he holds an agrégation in classics and a doctorate in sociology.
Christian Baudelot has published a number of works, often in collaboration with
Roger Establet, including L'école capitaliste en France (Maspero, 1971), Le niveau monte (Seuil, 1989), Allez les filles (
Éditions du Seuil
Éditions du Seuil (), also known as Le Seuil, is a French publishing house established in 1935 by Catholic intellectual Jean Plaquevent (1901–1965), and currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The ''seuil'' (th ...
, 1992), Suicide, l'envers de notre monde ((Seuil, 2006).
In the first part of his career, he was close to
Louis Althusser
Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher who studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy.
Althusser was a long-time member an ...
. His work was initially part of the Marxist intellectual landscape of the sixties and seventies. His early work in the
Sociology of education
The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is mostly concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of ...
, in conjunction with the works of
Pierre Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...
and
Jean-Claude Passeron
Jean-Claude Passeron (born 26 November 1930) is a French sociologist and leader of social science studies. As part of a mixed interdisciplinary team involving sociologists, historians, and anthropologists, he led the magazine ''EnquĂŞtes''.
Bi ...
(Les héritiers, 1964; La reproduction, 1970), sought to highlight the social inequalities reproduced by the school system.
From 1968 to 1989, he was a professor at the
ENSAE Paris
ENSAE Paris, officially École nationale de la statistique et de l'administration économique de Paris (; "Paris National School of Statistics and Economical Management"), is a grande école in France and a member of IP Paris ( Institut Polytec ...
(Ensae). It contributes to the dissemination of sociological culture among future statistician-surveyors at the
(INSEE), but above all to the development of a reflective approach and the theoretical foundations for the production of French public statistics.
In the second part of his work,
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
ideology becomes less present, giving way to a more
Émile Durkheim
David Émile Durkheim (; or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French Sociology, sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern soci ...
sociology of the struggle against preconceptions: Le niveau monte (with Roger Establet, Seuil, 1989), Et pourtant, ils lisent... (with Marie Cartier and Christine Detrez, Seuil, 1999), Suicide. L'envers de notre monde (with Roger Establet, Seuil, 2006).
Confronted with his wife Olga's chronic kidney disease, he donated one of his kidneys to her in 2006.
Sensitized by this experience, he became involved in patient movements, with the Renaloo association, of which he became vice-president, and as co-founder of the Demain la Greffe think-tank.
In 2007, he signed the “appel des intellectuels” calling for a vote for
Ségolène Royal
Ségolène Royal (; born Marie-Ségolène Royal; 22 September 1953) is a French politician who took part in the 2007 French presidential election, losing to Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round. She was the first woman in France's history to r ...
.
« Avant qu'il ne soit trop tard »
''Le Nouvel Observateur
(), previously known as (2014–2024), (1964–2014), (1954–1964), (1953–1954), and (1950–1953), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, ' is one of the three most prominent French news magazines ...
'', 13 mars 2007
Works
* (tr. with Pierre Clinquart) ''Anthropologie'' by Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ...
, 1967.
* (with Roger Establet) ''L'ecole capitaliste en France'', 1971
* (with Roger Establet and Jacques Malemort) ''La petite bourgeoisie en France'', 1974
* (with Roger Establet, Jacques Toiser and P. O Flavigny) ''Qui travaille pour qui'', 1979
* (with Roger Establet) ''Durkheim et le suicide'', 1984
* (with Roger Establet) ''Le Niveau monte'', 1989
* (with Roger Establet) ''Allez les filles!'', 1992
* (with Roger Establet) ''Maurice Halbwachs: consommation et société'', 1994
* (with M. Gollac, Céline Bessière ''et al'') ''Travailler pour être heureux? le bonheur et le travail en France'', 2003
* (with Roger Establet) ''Suicide: l'envers de notre monde'', 2006. Translated into English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Culture, language and peoples
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
* ''English'', an Amish ter ...
as ''Suicide: The Hidden Side of Modernity'', 2008
* (ed. with Marie Jaisson) ''Maurice Halbwachs, sociologue retrouvé'', 2007
* (with Roger Establet) ''L'élitisme républicain: l'école française à l'épreuve des comparaisons internationales'', 2009
References
Bibliography
*Cécile Daumas, "
Le don de soi
'", ''Libération
(), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...
'', 6 February 2010.
External links
Webpage
at the ENS
1938 births
Living people
French sociologists
French male writers
{{France-sociologist-stub