Gurvitch, Georges (1894-1965)

Trained as a philosopher, Georges Gurvitch (1894–1965) was a sociologist of Jewish and Russian origin who took part in the 1917 revolution. He moved to France in 1925 and settled at the University of Strasbourg. During the Second World War, he went into exile in New York, where he co-founded the École libre des hautes études – a “university-in-exile” for French academics in New York during the Second World War – at the New School for Social Research, where Claude Lévi-Strauss taught. In 1948, he was elected lecturer and, two years later, professor of sociology at the Sorbonne. He was one of the leading figures in French post-war sociology. In 1946, he cofounded the Centre d’études sociologiques (CES), a centre for post-war reconstruction of sociology and debates with psychology and anthropology. The CES welcomed many ethnologists among its members, influenced by Gurvitch’s sociological theory (Georges Balandier, Roger Bastide, Jacques Berque, Chombart de Lauwe, etc.). Opposition to Lévi-Strauss became more pronounced in the 1950s, as the two men did not share the same definition of structure or the same conception of the Maussian heritage. Gurvitch founded the journal Cahiers internationaux de sociologie in 1946. Balandier succeeded him as chair (1962) and editor (1965).

Keywords: Sociology | Marxism | Structuralism | 20^th century | France | Structure | Social structure | Marcel Mauss | Claude Lévi-Strauss