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Michel Crozier obituary Michel Crozier obituary
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Michel Crozier, who has died at the age of 90, was one of the great French sociologists in a remarkable generation that came to prominence in the 1960s and early 70s. Names to be mentioned in the same breath are Pierre Bourdieu, Alain Touraine and Raymond Boudon. These dominant figures, methodologically at war, were propelled into public debate by the interlocked world of publishers based in Paris's intellectual triangle between the boulevards Saint Germain and Raspail and the rue du Bac, a press which took up their ideas and an expanding university system that up till then had not taken sociology seriously.Michel Crozier, who has died at the age of 90, was one of the great French sociologists in a remarkable generation that came to prominence in the 1960s and early 70s. Names to be mentioned in the same breath are Pierre Bourdieu, Alain Touraine and Raymond Boudon. These dominant figures, methodologically at war, were propelled into public debate by the interlocked world of publishers based in Paris's intellectual triangle between the boulevards Saint Germain and Raspail and the rue du Bac, a press which took up their ideas and an expanding university system that up till then had not taken sociology seriously.
Crozier's breakthrough book, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (1963 in French, 1964 in English), is a still wonderful account of how an organisation as a system generates the overlapping vicious circles that then block the system. The voices of his interviewees in two public service organisations, one a clerical agency, the other a state industrial monopoly, explaining their attitudes and their behaviour, are as fresh as if they had been uttered yesterday. This book heralded a consistent theme in Crozier's work that organisational reform is not possible unless its proponents take into account the way that people will interpret it, react to it and subvert it. As Crozier put it in the title of a 1979 book: "You can't change a society by decree."Crozier's breakthrough book, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (1963 in French, 1964 in English), is a still wonderful account of how an organisation as a system generates the overlapping vicious circles that then block the system. The voices of his interviewees in two public service organisations, one a clerical agency, the other a state industrial monopoly, explaining their attitudes and their behaviour, are as fresh as if they had been uttered yesterday. This book heralded a consistent theme in Crozier's work that organisational reform is not possible unless its proponents take into account the way that people will interpret it, react to it and subvert it. As Crozier put it in the title of a 1979 book: "You can't change a society by decree."
His findings and his analysis were not only theoretically important, refining the work of one of the founding fathers of sociology, Max Weber, to show what really happens behind the organisation chart. As applied to French public administration and French society as a whole, his work called for a much more sophisticated understanding of the rigidities about which a French elite constantly complains. Crozier pursued these ideas in The Stalled Society (1970 in French, 1973 in English) and in the theoretical classic Actors and Systems (1977), co-written with Erhard Friedberg.His findings and his analysis were not only theoretically important, refining the work of one of the founding fathers of sociology, Max Weber, to show what really happens behind the organisation chart. As applied to French public administration and French society as a whole, his work called for a much more sophisticated understanding of the rigidities about which a French elite constantly complains. Crozier pursued these ideas in The Stalled Society (1970 in French, 1973 in English) and in the theoretical classic Actors and Systems (1977), co-written with Erhard Friedberg.
Crozier got into sociology by chance. He was born in north-eastern France, at Sainte-Menehould in the Marne department, into what he described as a happy suburban family. His initial studies were in business and law at the Paris business school Hautes Etudes Commerciales. Then he was given a scholarship to spend 14 months in the US, where he chose to interview American shop stewards.Crozier got into sociology by chance. He was born in north-eastern France, at Sainte-Menehould in the Marne department, into what he described as a happy suburban family. His initial studies were in business and law at the Paris business school Hautes Etudes Commerciales. Then he was given a scholarship to spend 14 months in the US, where he chose to interview American shop stewards.
He was at that time, he wrote in his 2002 autobiography, Mémoires, "something of a poet, vaguely surrealist and even a bit of revolutionary with Trotskyite tendencies". The CIA dogged him. But he came back with a wealth of interviews which gave him a permanent taste for fieldwork, produced a prizewinning thesis in 1949, and gained him entry to the French national research organisation, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).He was at that time, he wrote in his 2002 autobiography, Mémoires, "something of a poet, vaguely surrealist and even a bit of revolutionary with Trotskyite tendencies". The CIA dogged him. But he came back with a wealth of interviews which gave him a permanent taste for fieldwork, produced a prizewinning thesis in 1949, and gained him entry to the French national research organisation, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
In 1961 he was able to create his own CNRS centre, the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations, to pursue the strategic analysis for which he was becoming famous, and away from what he considered the narrowness of the French university. From 1959 he had a continuing collaboration with American social scientists at the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences at Palo Alto, California, and later at Harvard. It was a model of the fruits of international academic exchange, though somewhat dampened by his book The Trouble with America (1980 in French, 1984 in English).In 1961 he was able to create his own CNRS centre, the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations, to pursue the strategic analysis for which he was becoming famous, and away from what he considered the narrowness of the French university. From 1959 he had a continuing collaboration with American social scientists at the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences at Palo Alto, California, and later at Harvard. It was a model of the fruits of international academic exchange, though somewhat dampened by his book The Trouble with America (1980 in French, 1984 in English).
In the mid-1970s I was sent to Paris with a Sisyphean task set by the magazine New Society of trying to interview the god figures of French sociology. It was a disaster: I came away feeling I had been eaten for dinner by both Bourdieu and Touraine and had not fully appreciated Boudon. Chastened, I didn't try to see Crozier face to face. It turned out he had long resented Bourdieu's "colonisation" of public opinion, about which he wrote scathingly in Mémoires.In the mid-1970s I was sent to Paris with a Sisyphean task set by the magazine New Society of trying to interview the god figures of French sociology. It was a disaster: I came away feeling I had been eaten for dinner by both Bourdieu and Touraine and had not fully appreciated Boudon. Chastened, I didn't try to see Crozier face to face. It turned out he had long resented Bourdieu's "colonisation" of public opinion, about which he wrote scathingly in Mémoires.
When I did eventually meet him in the 1990s, he was still a stylish, dapper figure and a hopeful social reformer, berating top civil servants for not learning the lessons of his work.When I did eventually meet him in the 1990s, he was still a stylish, dapper figure and a hopeful social reformer, berating top civil servants for not learning the lessons of his work.
Crozier's first wife predeceased him. Three daughters of that marriage and his second wife survive him.Crozier's first wife predeceased him. Three daughters of that marriage and his second wife survive him.
• Michel Crozier, sociologist, born 6 November 1922; died 24 May 2013• Michel Crozier, sociologist, born 6 November 1922; died 24 May 2013
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