Georges Balandier (born 21 December 1920 in Aillevillers-et-Lyaumont) is a French sociologist, anthropologist and ethnologist noted for his research in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is currently a professor emeritus at the Sorbonne (Université René Descartes, Paris-V), and is a member of the Center for African Studies (Centre d'études africaines [Ceaf]), a research center of the École pratique des hautes études (School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences). Held for many years the Editorship of prestigious Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie (previoulsy held by his mentor Georges Gurvitch) and edited the innovative series Sociologie d'Aujourd'hui at Presses Universitaires de France. Among his disciples, collaborators or followers are a number of French intellectuals who resisted Pierre Bourdieu's influence (Michel Maffesoli, Jean Duvignaud, Colette Moreux, Philippe-Joseph Salazar).