He was one of the most famous representatives of French sociology. Michel Pinçon died at the age of 80, according to information published by Humanity, Wednesday, September 28, and confirmed to franceinfo by La Découverte editions. “It is with sadness and great emotion that La Découverte editions announce the death of sociologist Michel Pinçon, which occurred on September 26, at the age of 80, from the consequences of Alzheimer’s disease”, writes the publishing house in a press release.
Michel Pinçon, who was directresearcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), became famous pfor its work on the wealthiest categories of the population. He worked on these in duet with his wife, Monique Pinçon-Charlot. “We address our friendly thoughts to his wife and lifelong accomplice, Monique Pinçon-Charlot, with whom he shared six decades of a studious, loving and committed life.”continues the publishing house.
The couple’s reference books are called In nice neighborhoods (PUF, 1989) or even The Ghettos of Gotha (Threshold, 2007). He had first published two books on popular circles, including one in 1982 (live together) at the end of a long investigation in immersion in a housing estate in the suburbs of Nantes.
Then, noting the disinterest of their sociologist colleagues for the most privileged, the couple had chosen to immerse themselves in the life of wealthy families. Thanks to the intervention of a colleague from this social class, Paul Rendu, they had been able to speak with and share a little of the life of the very rich, of whom they were extremely critical.
The two sociologists have published pamphlets against two Presidents of the Republic. It was Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010, in The President of the Rich: Investigating the Oligarchy in Nicolas Sarkozy’s France. Then Emmanuel Macron in 2019, in The President of the ultra-rich: chronicle of class contempt in the politics of Emmanuel Macron.