Pierre Bourdieu, Leading French Thinker, Dies at 71
January 24, 2002
By REUTERS
PARIS, Jan 24 -- One of France's leading intellectuals,
sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, has died, colleagues said on
Thursday. He was 71.
The daily Le Monde said Bourdieu, in recent years a
champion of the anti-globalisation movement, had died of
cancer at the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, in a message of condolence,
called Bourdieu "a master of contemporary sociology and a
great figure in the intellectual life of our country."
A trenchant critic of capitalist society, Bourdieu began
his academic career at Algiers University in 1958 when
Algerian rebels were fighting for independence from French
colonial rule.
His main work, Distinction: A Social Critique of the
Judgement of Taste, published in 1984, remains one of the
defining studies of the relationships between consumer
behaviour and social class.
He had held the post of Professor of Sociology at the
College de France, the country's most prestigious academic
institute, since 1981.
Bourdieu, who trained as a philosopher and was also a noted
anthropologist, is widely regarded as having profoundly
reshaped sociological study since the 1960s.
His writings ranged widely over culture, art, politics,
education, the media and literature and were accompanied by
political activity and support for working-class struggles
that made him an intellectual reference point for the left.
Bourdieu was born in Denguin in southwest France on August
1, 1930.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/24/obituaries/24WIRE-BOURDIEU.html?ex=1012974
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