Patrick Mignon was born in 1950.
A sociologist, he worked for ten years as a freelance researcher on youth culture and supporterism in soccer, and more broadly on the question of the sporting spectacle.
In 1996, he joined the research department of INSEP (Institut national du sport, de l'expertise et de la performance) in the sociology laboratory, which he headed from 1998 until his retirement in 2015.
He developed or initiated several lines of research :
- the sociology of the sporting spectacle and supporterism ;
- the socio-economics of sport : careers and the sports labor market ;
- the sociodemography of sporting practices ;
- racism and discrimination in sport ;
- the sociology of drugs and doping.
From 2005 to 2012, he led a seminar on the " Sociology of performance " at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, as part of the Centre de sociologie du travail et des arts, a seminar which was repeated at INSEP from 2013 to 2017.
Since then, he has continued his research activities, with a particular focus on the links between sport and the arts and culture around the issues of work and performance.
He was a member of the editorial board of the journal Vibrations. Revue d'études des musiques populaires from 1985 to 1987, of Esprit magazine from 1995 and since 2018 member of the honorary committee, and of Football magazine since 2020.
Patrick Mignon is a guest on the 2024 lecture series " Les Jeux au Collège de France ".