American Howard Baker, a specialist in modern sociology known for his innovative analysis of deviance, has died at the age of 95, his wife announced to AFP on Thursday.
"Howe passed away peacefully on August 16 at his home in San Francisco, California," said photographer Diane Hagaman.
In his most famous work, Outsiders (1963), Howard redefined deviance as a consequence of social interactions, whereby it is not the actions of the individual themselves that classify him as disobedient but the view of others.
Howard Baker was also a musician. "No, I've always wanted to be a pianist," he told The New Yorker in an interview dating back to 2015.
Baker, who completed his studies in Chicago, realized that he could simultaneously work as a researcher and commit to the field of music. Jazz clubs were his first field of study.
From his observations about jazz, which at the time was considered a bubble of eccentrics and cannabis smokers, he concluded that individuals who are seen as not very integrated into society are actually very integrated into their sub-group.
Baker wrote about the art world as well.
Although he was a professor at the famous Northwestern University near Chicago, his works were particularly interested in France, which he visited frequently during the last stages of his life.
"We have left a very great sociologist," the French Association of Sociology wrote on the "X" (formerly Twitter) site.
