Raymond Boudon (27 January 1934 – 10 April 2013) was a sociologist, philosopher and Professor in the

Paris-Sorbonne University Paris-Sorbonne University (also known as Paris IV; ) was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, active from 1971 to 2017. It was the main inheritor of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Paris. In 2018, it m ...

Career

With Alain Touraine,

Michel Crozier Michel Crozier (6 November 1922, Sainte-Menehould, Marne – 24 May 2013, Paris) was a French sociologist and member of the ''Académie des sciences morales et politiques'' from 1999 until his death. He also was a fellow of the American Acade ...

and

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 ...

, Raymond Boudon is one of the leading French sociologists of the last quarter of the 20th century. He is known for his research on

social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given socie ...

and inequality of opportunities as well as for his defense of

methodological individualism In the social sciences, methodological individualism is a method for explaining social phenomena strictly in terms of the decisions of individuals, each being moved by their own personal motivations. In contrast, explanations of social phenomen ...

. He edited the journal Quality and Quantity. He was a member of many important institutions.

Académie des Sciences morales et politiques An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, Academia Europaea, British Academy, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, International Academy of Human Sciences of St Petersburg, Central European Academy of Arts and Sciences. And a fellow at the

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research institution at Stanford University designed to advance the frontiers of knowledge about human behavior and society, and contribute to the resoluti ...

and an invited professor notably at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, and the Universities of

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. A biographical study of him by Jean-Michel Morin was published in 2006.Morin, Jean-Michel (2006). ''Boudon, un sociologue classique''. ("Boudon, a classical sociologist"). Paris: L'Harmattan.

Selected publications

* ''The Uses of Structuralism'' (1971) * ''Education, Opportunity and Social Inequality'' (1974) * ''The Logic of Social Action'' (1981) * ''Theories of Social Change'' (1986) * ''The Analysis of Ideology'' (1989) * ''The Art of Self-Persuasion'' (1994) * ''The Origin of Values'' (2000)

Notes

Bibliography

*E. Di Nuoscio, "Le ragioni degli individui. L'individualismo metodologico di Raymond Boudon", Rubbettino, Roma 1996

External links

Raymond Boudon's profile at Paris-Sorbonne University (Paris IV)
École Normale Supérieure alumni Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques Members of Academia Europaea Academic staff of the University of Paris Harvard University staff 1934 births 2013 deaths French sociologists Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French social scientists French male non-fiction writers Writers from Paris {{France-academic-bio-stub