Daniel Bertaux

Daniel Bertaux is a French sociologist. He uses biographies in the study of sociology, and studies social mobility and life histories. He has been active in the International Sociological Association, European Sociological Association and French Sociological Association. He edited Biography and Society, texts presented in the World Congress of Sociology in Uppsala 1978. After the fall of the Soviet Union he collected and analysed life stories in Russia.
The life history method, previously known as part of the Chicago School and Polish Sociology, had largely fallen into disrepute in sociology until Oscar Lewis popularized the use of life stories in his Children of Sanchez. Inspired by Lewis, Bertaux collected the stories of French family bakers to show how the lives of bakers, bakers' apprentices and their women were interconnected.
He was educated as an engineer. Bertaux has worked with Raymond Aron, Pierre Bourdieu and Alain Touraine. He is married and publishes together with Catherine Delcroix.

Publications

Destins personnels et structure de classe, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1977
La mobilité sociale, Hatier, coll. « Profil société », Paris, 1985
: Pathways To Social Class. A Qualitative Approach To Social Mobility. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1997. 323 p.
: .

CORDES, 1980, offset, 2 vol.: vol 1, 401 p.; vol. 2, 124 p.

: "Artisanal Bakery in France. How It Lives and Why It Survives", pp. 155–81 in Frank Bechhofer and Brian Elliott, The Petite Bourgeoisie. Comparative Studies of the Uneasy Stratum, London, MacMillan, 1981
: "Life Stories in the Baker's trade", pp. 169–189 in D. Bertaux : Biography and Society, London and Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, Londres, 1981; 2nd ed., California Press 1983
"The Life-Cycle Approach as a Challenge to the Social Sciences", pp. 125–150 in Tamara K. Hareven and Kate J. Adams : Aging and Life Course Transitions. An Interdisciplinary Perspective. New York, The Guilford Press, 1982.
"Stories as Clues to Sociological Understanding", pp. 93–108 in Paul Thompson : Our Common History: The Transformation of Europe, Pluto Press, London 1982
Histoires de vies - ou récits de pratiques ? Méthodologie de l'approche biographique en sociologie. CORDES, 1976, ronéo, 235 p., bibl.
Biography And Society. The Life-History Approach In The Social Sciences, Sage, London and Beverly Hills, 1981, 309 p.
Des pères face au divorce : la fragilisation du lien paternel, CNAF, coll. « Espaces et Familles », Paris, 1991
: Sudby lyudei: Russia XX Vek, Moscow, 1996
Les récits de vie. Perspective ethnosociologique, Nathan, coll. « 128 », Paris, 1997
: Lioudmilla. Une Russe dans le siècle, La Dispute, coll. « Instants », Paris, 1998
: On Living in Soviet Russia. Routledge, London 2004. 277 p.