Born May 18, 1942 in Lonny, a village in the Ardennes, Michel Pinçon grew up in a working-class family.
This renowned sociologist, who had started as a sociologist of the workers before turning to the transmission of wealth in the nobility and the upper middle class, died, we learned this Wednesday from his wife.
Michel Pinçon, former director of research at the CNRS, died Monday at his home in the Paris region, at the age of 80, after being affected by Alzheimer's disease, said Monique Pinçon-Charlot.
Most of his work was written in collaboration with her.
“I always say we wrote 27 books together,” she said.
Their reference works are called “Les Beaux Quartiers” (PUF, 1989) or “Les Ghettos du gotha” (Seuil, 2007).
Since their retirement in 2007 and the abandonment of their reserve obligation, the Pinçon-Charlots have taken positions that are sometimes strongly criticized, especially for taxation of the rich.
“Inhabited by this desire to understand injustices”
"He has been passionate about sociology since childhood, with his working-class origins in the Meuse valley, and his attachment to the welfare state which gave children like him the opportunity to study," said his wife.
They met in 1965 during their studies in Lille.
"It was a mutual love at first sight, between two lame people who had inverted class neuroses", commented Monique Pinçon-Charlot, who for her part is of bourgeois origin, daughter of a magistrate.
Fascinated by the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, they had a long career as researchers from the 1970s.
"Michel has always been inhabited by this desire to understand injustices, whether social, economic, and above all symbolic, those from which he himself suffered the most", explained his wife.