I spent my childhood and adolescence between Chapareillan, a small village of the Grésivaudan valley, and the Cité de l’Abbaye in Grenoble.

After completing my secondary schooling at the Lycée Champollion of Grenoble, I embarked on a career as a schoolteacher in the prefecture of the Isère from 1955 to 1966, while also pursuing university studies at the Faculty of Law and Economics of Grenoble.

In 1966, I joined the Faculty of Economics of Grenoble as a lecturer, invited by Gérard de Bernis who supervised my doctoral thesis, which I defended in December of that year, simultaneously undertaking research work within the IREP* (also thanks to Gérard de Bernis, who was, at the time, its director), where I remained until 1977. These were years of prolific output in the fields of international economics, industrial economics and labour economics.

Successfully passing the agrégation** in 1977 and thus attaining the rank of professor, I left Grenoble for Algeria, where I taught at the universities first of Algiers, then Oran, until 1980, with recurrent periods spent at the Institute of Economics of Oran until 1985 as the supervisor of the ‘magister’ (postgraduate course), which I had instituted upon my arrival in 1978. Over this period, I conducted important research work on Algeria: the productive system and industry, the wage system, the banking system and credit money.

As of 1981, and after a brief spell in Grenoble (1980-81), I became professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Amiens, where I am, to this day, professor emeritus. I also gave classes at IEDES*-Paris 1 (Pantheon-Sorbonne) between 1984-90.

Upon my arrival in Paris in 1981, together with fellow academics (sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, economists) and trade-unionists (CGT, CFDT), we collectively created a Research Centre, the CRMSI*, where I remained until 1986. After this date, I became involved in the Research Centres of Amiens University, where I successively directed the ERSI*, and then the CRIISEA*, until 2005.
Co-director of the ‘Economie & Institutions’ journal with S. Longuet, which we launched in 2002.

Since 1980, a number of research considerations, first on ‘socialization’, then on institutionalism, with ‘returns’ to the fields of international economy, industry, labour and the wage system, Algeria and development, money.

A career-path as a research worker, certainly, but also as a teacher. I loved ‘teaching’. For their patient ‘listening’, I thank the thousands of students of Grenoble, Algiers, Oran, Amiens, Paris (IEDES), who offered me so much through their suggestions and their criticisms in a ‘dialogue’ that was always constructive.

 

* Translator's Note: The acronyms appearing in the texte correspond to the following:
IREP Institut de Recherche Economique et de Planification
IEDES Institut d'Etudes du Développement Economique et Social
CRMSI Centre de Recherche sur les Mutations des Sociétés Industrielles
ERSI Equipe de Recherche sur les Systèmes Industriels
CRIISEA Centre de Recherche sur l'Industrie, les Institutions et les Systèmes Economiques, d'Amiens

∗∗ In France, the concours d'agrégation is a high-level competitive recruiting examination, which gives successful candidates the rank of full professor.