Pierre Bourdieu, one of the leading sociologists of post-war France, passed away after a bout with cancer. He was seventy one years old.
In an open letter to the academic community Loic Wacquant, a close colleague of Bourdieu and one of his main expositors in the United States, writes:
Dear colleagues and friends:
It is with a heart heavy with grief that I write to let you know that Pierre
Bourdieu passed away last night, at the Hospital Saint-Antoine in Paris, at
the age of 71, after a month-long bout with cancer. Until the very end, he
worked and remained fully engaged in the craft of sociology, to which he has given so much over forty years. Yet, as great as his oeuvre is, for me and for many who knew him it is the man, his generosity, kindness, and integrity, who will be missed most.
He is survived by his wife Marie-Claire and their three sons Jerome,
Emmanuel and Laurent and their families.
If you would like to send a note of condolence or appreciation, you can
do so at:
Centre de Sociologie Europeenne
College de France
52, rue du Cardinal-Lemoine
75231 Paris Cedex 05 France
You can circulate this message to people in and out of the discipline.
-Loic
Loic Wacquant
University of California, Berkeley
Centre de sociologie europeenne du College de France
The New York Times has an obituary (free subscription required). There are also articles at Le Monde (here is the other one). The Chron has an interview with Wacquant on Bourdieu's life and the projects he was working on when he died.
Bourdieu had an enormous influence over me as an undergraduate and although I eventually moved away from the positions that he took, reading his works was an essential part of my own intellectual formation. Condolences to all his friends, family, and close colleagues.