His initial works dealt with the notion or object of the 'psy' sciences then with what he calls the 'new social questions'. In the 1960s he worked with Pierre Bourdieu. He then became interested in psychoanalysis and psychiatry, establishing a critical sociology of these issues and linking this work to Michel Foucault, particularly to his 'genealogical approach'. His later works dealt with exclusion, or rather what he calls the 'disaffiliation', which affects individuals 'by default'.

His current works examine how the wage system, which at first was despised, has gradually established itself as the reference model and has been progressively associated with social protections, and the concept of social property, creating a constitutive status of 'social identity'. He is responsible for the formation of Le Groupe d'analyse du social et de la sociabilité (GRASS), a specialised group of sociologists within the CNRS.

• « Robert Castel », Le Monde.

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