Gautier Pirotte

Gautier Pirotte (born March 29, 1973 in Rocourt) is a Belgian sociologist, PhD holder, and professor of socio-anthropology at the University of Liège. His research focuses on development cooperation, international solidarity, and theories and organizations of civil society. Early years After studying Information and Communications (1991-1994), he studied sociology at the University of Liège (1994-1996) and then completed his doctoral thesis on the emergence of civil societies in Eastern Europe and in Sub-Saharan Africa (2002). Later, during a postdoctoral stay at the University of Lille II, he addressed the notion of humanitarian aid by looking into the Romanian humanitarian period that followed the fall of Nicolae Ceaucescu's dictatorship. From his first works came various scientific works and articles on the NGO sectors of Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Romania as well as the dynamics favoring the emergence of certain forms of civil society in these countries (Pirotte G., 2011, M. Poncelet et al., 2006, Pirotte G., 2006). University He joined the University of Liège in September 2006 and became Chairman of Socioanthropology|Socio-Anthropology of Development. In addition to his role as a professor, he holds various positions in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Liège (ULiège), he has served as the President (2007-2014) and then Jury Secretary (since 2014) of studies of the Master in Population and Development Sciences, as well as the Head of the Working Group in charge of the valorization and communication of the university faculty or Academic Secretary. Research At the same time, his research work since 2006 has focused more on the organization of international aid (humanitarian and development aid) as well as on the commitment to international solidarity. Gautier Pirotte coined the acronym P.I.I.S., Popular Initiative of International Solidarity (P.I.I.S., I.P.S.I. in French), to characterize forms of engagement for another distant developed by ordinary citizens, engaged not professionally in development cooperation.