French critic Pierre Bourdieu died of cancer at 11 p.m. Wednesday night at the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris. He was 71. Internationally renowned for his radical and committed work in sociology and anthropology, he moved in his last years from the academic style to more active engagment in social movements. He was the Director of Studies at the Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and a member of the College de France since 1981. For his followers, his work on the social world constituted a "symbolic revolution" in knowledge.

For French readers, Liberation's obit may be found at Liberation on Pierre Bourdieu and Le Monde's at "http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3246--259825-,00.html">Le Monde on Pierre Bourdieu