Abstract

VALENCIA GUTIERREZ, Alberto. ALAIN TOURAINE OR THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE SOCIAL ACTOR. IN MEMORIAM. anal.polit. [online]. 2023, vol.36, n.107, pp.174-195.  Epub Feb 18, 2024. ISSN 0121-4705.  https://doi.org/10.15446/anpol.v36n107.112554.

On June 9, 2023, the well-known sociologist Alain Touraine, author of a vast body of research and books that revolves around two fundamental problems—a new sociology of the social actor and an investigation into the characteristics of contemporary societies—died in Paris at the age of 97. His intellectual project could be summarized in the following phrase: relaunch sociology based on the recognition of the primacy of social action. And all this in the initial framework of the debate with the structuralist model of the sixties in France, as well as with Parsons’ functionalism predominant in North American sociology of the same time. The sociology of social movements, for which he is best known, is a corollary of his fundamental concern with the creative character of social action. To these two orientations of his sociological work, we should add his interest in the study of Latin America, from the Rio Grande to Patagonia. This article aims to construct a synthetic presentation of the central aspects of his work following his own criteria: “Rather than distinguishing chronologically the phases of my work, what I try to do is understand its unity. Because today I am convinced that I have always asked myself the same questions—although not in the same way and probably with an insufficient degree of awareness.” (2000, p. 114).

Keywords : Touraine; social action; social movements; sociological intervention; contemporary sociological theory; post-industrial society; hypermodernity; subject; sociology of Latin America.

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