Jean-Pascal Daloz is a CNRS Senior Research Professor at the University of Strasbourg. After having worked for seven years in Western and Southern Africa as Head of French research centers, he held positions in several universities, including that of Oxford. From 2008-2018, he chaired the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Comparative Sociology.
He is specializing in the study of elites. His comparative research mainly focuses on social distinction at the top of societies and on the symbolic dimensions of political representation. He was CCS Visiting Fellow in 2017-2018.
He has published 16 books to date (+ translations), including the bestselling Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument (Oxford, 1999) and Culture Troubles: Politics and the Interpretation of Meaning (Chicago, 2006), co-authored. He is notably the author of the trilogy: The Sociology of Elite Distinction: From Theoretical to Comparative Perspectives (New York, 2010), Rethinking Social Distinction (New York, 2013), Expressions of High Status: A Comparative Synthesis (London, 2022). His forthcoming book, Hors du commun. Impensés de la distinction sociale, will come out in Paris in 2026.