2023-08-18 07:08:12
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From his observations in the jazz world, the sociologist had drawn this analysis: individuals considered to be very little integrated into society are in fact integrated into their sub-group to which they belong.
Posted on 08/18/2023 07:04 Updated on 08/18/2023 07:08
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American sociologist Howard S. Becker died at the age of 95 on August 16, 2023. (SOPHIE BASSOULS / SYGMA / GETTY IMAGES)
The American sociologist Howard Becker, known for his innovative analysis of deviance, has died at the age of 95, his wife announced on Thursday August 17. “Howie passed away peacefully yesterday, August 16th, at his home in San Francisco, California.”, said his wife, photographer Dianne Hagaman. In his most famous work, Outsiders (1963), Howard Becker had rethought deviance as the result of social interactions: it is not the acts of an individual in themselves that classify him as transgressive, but the gaze of others.
The sociologist, who began his studies just after the Second World War as reported France Culturewas also a musician. “I always wanted to be a pianist”he told the New Yorker in 2015. A student in Chicago, Howard Becker understands that he can lead his life as a researcher while continuing to make music: jazz clubs will be his first field of study. “You can become an anthropologist, something very romantic, but without having to go far for it”he explained to the magazine.
From his observations in the jazz world, he will draw this analysis: individuals seen as very little integrated into society are in reality integrated into their sub-group to which they belong. Howard Becker had also written about the art world.
A professor at the very famous Northwestern University, near Chicago, his work was particularly read in France, where he went regularly in the last part of his life. “A very great sociologist is leaving us”wrote on Thursday on X (formerly Twitter) the French Association of Sociology.
“The immense Howard Becker is deceased. (…) To read him is to want to follow him on the field!”, reacted for his part the sociologist Hadrien Clouet, deputy LFI.
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