Robert Castel facts for kids

Robert Castel (born August 1, 1933 – died March 12, 2013) was a French sociologist. He was also a researcher at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, which is a well-known school in France. Sociologists study how people live together in groups and how societies work.

Robert Castel's Academic Path

Robert Castel was born in Saint-Pierre-Quilbignon, a town that is now part of Brest. In the late 1950s, he first studied philosophy. Philosophy is about big questions like what is real or what is right.

Later, in the late 1960s, he met Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu was another important sociologist. Robert Castel then started working with him in the field of sociology.

Early Research: Psychology and Exclusion

Castel's first studies looked at psychology (how our minds work) and psychiatry (how mental health is treated). He developed a way of looking at these topics critically. This means he questioned common ideas about them. He also connected his work to the ideas of Michel Foucault. Foucault had a special way of looking at how things developed over time, like a "family tree" of ideas.

Castel also studied "exclusion." This is when people are left out or don't feel like they belong in society. He called this "disaffiliation." It describes how individuals can become disconnected from social groups.

Later Work: The Wage System and Social Protection

His later and most famous work looked at the "wage system." This is how people get paid for their work. At first, getting paid wages was not seen as a good thing. But over time, it became the main way people earned money.

Castel showed how the wage system slowly became linked to "social protections." These are things like health care, unemployment benefits, and pensions. They help people feel safe and secure. This created a new idea of "social property." It means that people have rights and protections because they are part of society. This also helped shape a person's "social identity," or who they are in society.

Castel also helped create a special group of sociologists. This group was called Le Groupe d'analyse du social et de la sociabilité (GRASS). It was part of the CNRS, a big research organization in France.

Books by Robert Castel

Robert Castel wrote many important books about his research:

• Le Psychanalysme, 1973
• L'Ordre psychiatrique, 1977 (This book was translated into English in 1988 as The Regulation of Madness: The Origins of Incarceration in France)
• La Gestion des risques, Minuit, 1981
• La Société psychiatrique avancée, 1979
• Les Métamorphoses de la question sociale, une chronique du salariat, Fayard, 1995. (This book was translated into English in 2002 as From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question)
• Propriété privée, propriété sociale, propriété de soi (with Claudine Haroche), 2001.
• L'Insécurité sociale : qu'est-ce qu'être protégé?, Éd. du Seuil, 2003.
• La discrimination négative, 2007
• La montée des incertitudes : Travail, protections, statut de l'individu, Ed. du Seuil, 2009

See also

In Spanish: Robert Castel para niños