Henri Lefebvre: A Parisian Paesant from the Occitanian Pyrenees

Resuming Lefebvre in an environmental sociology companion book seem like a heretic act. In fact, very few know that Lefebvre, originally from Hagetmau, in the French Landes, approached the urban sociology through the rural (sociology). In 1954 he discussed at the Sorbonne his doctoral dissertation that had as its object Les Communautés paysannes pyrénées. Previously, in 1949, he published "Problèmes de Sociologie Rurale: La Communauté Paysanne et ses Problémes Historico-Sociologiques" and in 1953: "Perspectives de la Sociologie Rurale". In 1963 he wrote La Vallée de Campan. Ètude de sociologie rurale, and in 1965 the volume Pyréneées. Through these studies and these writings (and contradicting the widespread opinion that Marxist scholars, in their analysis, are inconsistent on the methodological level), Lefebvre developed an original research method that he called regressive-progressive and applied it to of concrete social forms: the communauté paysanne and, subsequently, the urban and the state. The purpose of this essay is to resume and actualize the methodological insights of Lefevre: First of all, that concerning: «connaître la réalité, la penser, pour aider à la transformer».