Balandier, Georges

(1920- )

   anthropologist and sociologist

   Born in Aillevillers, Haute-Saône, Georges Balandier, shortly after World War II (1946), went with a group from the Musée de l'homme to do anthropologic and sociologic studies in Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, and Congo. His subsequent work has had a profound effect upon the study of contemporary African societies (Sociologie actuelle de l'Afrique noire, dynamique sociale en Afrique centrale, 1955), notably through the study of urban phenomena (Sociologie des Brazzavilles noires, 1955). His work is based on a dynamic sociology that studies the mechanisms of stability and instability, especially in phenomena that are not readily apparent (Sens et puissance, les dynamiques sociales, 1971; Le Désordre: éloge du mouvement, 1988). He also was interested in the way in which symbolic configuration can express social channels (Anthropo-logiques, 1974) and in the mechanism of power (Anthropologie politique, 1967; Le Pouvoir sur scenes, 1980). Georges Balandier, who taught at the École normale superieure and at the sorbonne, served as director of the Institut français d'Afrique noire (IFAN) in Guinea and later at Brazzaville.