Michel Pinçon (18 May 1942 – 26 September 2022) was a French sociologist. He served as and taught at the

Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis Paris 8 University (), or usually the University of Vincennes in Saint-Denis or Paris 8, is a public university in the Greater Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution. It is base ...

. Most of his work was written in collaboration with his wife,

Monique Pinçon-Charlot Monique Pinçon-Charlot (born 15 May 1946, in Saint-Étienne, France) is a French sociologist, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) until 2007, year of her retiring, attached to the Research Institut ...

, and devoted to the study of the

upper middle class In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term '' lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class stra ...

and social

elites In political and sociological theory, the elite (, from , to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful or wealthy people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the ...

Biography

Pinçon was born in

Lonny, Ardennes Lonny () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Ardennes department The following is a list of the 447 communes of the Ardennes department of France France, officially ...

, on 18 May 1942 into a

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family. His father was a polisher in

Nouzonville Nouzonville () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Ardennes department The following is a list of the 447 communes of the Ardennes department of France France, officia ...

. In 1967, he married fellow sociology student Monique Charlot, with whom he had a son. The marriage allowed his wife to accompany him while on France’s civilian service abroad () in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, which inspired his dissertation supervised by

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 ''Enquêtes''. Bi ...

. Upon the couple's return, they completed their studies at the and began working for the

CNRS 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 eng ...

. Throughout his career, Pinçon was interviewed multiple times on

France Inter France Inter () is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France. It is the successor to Paris Inter, later known as France I, and created as a merger of the France I and France II networks, first as RTF Inter in October 1963, then ren ...

. His works focused on income inequality and the customs and habits of wealthy families. Through his publications, he explored an anthropology of the elite class in contemporary French society. Pinçon and his wife retired in 2007 and published more concise works thanks to an ability to express themselves more freely while not employed. In

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, he publicly supported

Jean-Luc Mélenchon Jean-Luc Antoine Pierre Mélenchon (; born 19 August 1951) is a French politician who has been the ''de facto'' leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) since it was established in 2016. He was the Deputy (France), deputy in the National Assembly ( ...

for

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

, a candidate of the Left Front. He later distanced himself from Mélenchon, calling him "a new Mitterrand". Michel Pinçon died of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

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 ...

, on 26 September 2022, at the age of 80. National Secretary of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

Fabien Roussel Fabien Roussel (; born 16 April 1969) is a French politician who has served as national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) since 2018. He was the party’s candidate in the 2022 French presidential election where he placed eight in ...

paid tribute to him, saying "I pay tribute to this fellow traveler, a great sociologist, who never ceased, with Monique, to decipher the relationship of domination in all its forms".

Works

*''Désarrois ouvriers, familles de métallurgistes dans les mutations industrielles et sociales'' (1987)

With Monique Pinçon-Charlot

*''Dans les beaux quartiers'' (1989) *''La chasse à courre, ses rites et ses enjeux'' (1993) *''Voyage en grande bourgeoisie'' (1997) *''Grandes Fortunes. Dynasties familiales et formes de richesse en France'' (1998) *''Sociologie de la bourgeoisie'' (2000) *''Sociologie de Paris'' (2004) *''Châteaux et Châtelains : Les siècles passent, le symbole demeure'' (2005) *''Les Ghettos du gotha : comment la bourgeoisie défend ses espaces'' (2007) *''Paris : quinze promenades sociologiques'' (2009) *''Les millionnaires de la chance'' (2010) *' (2010) *''Des sociologues sans qualités ? Pratiques de recherche et engagements'' (2011) *''L'argent sans foi ni loi'' (2012) *''Altergouvernement'' (2012) *''La Violence des riches'' (2013) *' (2013) *''Pourquoi les riches sont-ils de plus en plus riches et les pauvres de plus en plus pauvres ?'' (2014) *''C'est quoi être riche ? Entretiens avec Emile'' (2015) *''Tentative d'évasion (fiscale)'' (2015) *''Les prédateurs au pouvoir. Main basse sur notre avenir'' (2017) *''Panique dans le 16e ! : Une enquête sociologique et dessinée'' (2017) *''Les Riches au tribunal : l'affaire Cahuzac et l'évasion fiscale'' (2018) *''Le Président des ultra-riches : Chronique du mépris de classe dans la politique d’

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

'' (2019) *''Notre vie chez les riches : mémoires d'un couple de sociologues'' (2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pincon, Michael 1942 births 2022 deaths Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in France Deaths from dementia in France French sociologists French socialists Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis alumni Knights of the Legion of Honour People from Ardennes (department)