Alain Touraine
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Alain Touraine | |
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France | |
Died | 9 June 2023 Paris, France | (aged 97)
Education | Lycée Louis-le-Grand |
Alma mater | École normale supérieure University of Paris |
Occupation | Sociologist |
Employer | School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences |
Spouse | Adriana Arenas |
Relatives | Marisol Touraine (daughter) |
Alain Touraine (French pronunciation:
Biography
Touraine completed his
The same year, he became a researcher in sociology at the CNRS, working in the new subfield of the sociology of work under Friedmann. Touraine conducted field research at the Renault auto factory in Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris, which would lead to his first sociological monograph, published in 1955.[1] In 1952, he received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to study at Harvard with Talcott Parsons.
Touraine defended his two doctoral theses at the University of Paris in 1964. His major thesis was published as Sociologie de l'action in 1965, and his minor thesis as La conscience ouvrière in 1966, both by Éditions du Seuil.
Touraine was the father of two children: Marisol, who served as the French Minister of Social Affairs and Health from 2012 to 2017 in the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault and Manuel Valls; and Philippe, a professor of endocrinology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.
Touraine died in Paris on 9 June 2023, at the age of 97.[2]
Work
Part of the first generation of French sociologues du travail after World War II, Touraine was a pioneer of sociological fieldwork in industrial settings in France, drawing on the influence of American industrial sociology and industrial relations, as well as the survey research of Paul Lazarsfeld.[3] Touraine's 1955 study of Renault articulated the "ABC" theory of automation which was adopted by 1960s radical sociologists of the "new working class," including Serge Mallet.[4]
Touraine's mature work after 1960 is based on a "sociology of action", which he called "actionalism",[5] and believes that society shapes its future through structural mechanisms and its own social struggles. Expressed in his first theoretical statement, Sociologie de l'action, Touraine conceived "actionalism" as an alternative to the functionalism of Talcott Parsons, toward which he had frequently expressed disdain throughout his career.[6]
Touraine was a professor of sociology at Nanterre when the student movement of May 1968 broke out on its campus. Touraine observed the movement on the ground and wrote one of the first studies of it; 1968 marked a transition in his work away from labor and the working class toward social movements.[7] Touraine, who in his 1960s work had been a major theorist of "industrial society," published one of the first books articulating a concept of "post-industrial society" in 1969, though the American sociologists Daniel Bell and David Riesman had already been using the term.[8]
His prime interest for most of his career has been with
Touraine has gained popularity in Latin America as well as in continental Europe. He has failed to gain the same recognition in the English-speaking world, although half of his books have been translated into English. He participated in 1969 at the Universitas project[clarification needed] organized by Argentine architect Emilio Ambasz.
Honours
In 2007, he was appointed honorary doctor of the
Selected publications
- Touraine, A. (1965) Sociologie de l'action. Paris: Seuil.
- Touraine, A. (1966) La conscience ouvrière. Paris: Seuil.
- Touraine, A. (1968) Le mouvement de mai ou le communisme utopique. Paris: Seuil.
- Touraine, A. (1969) La société post-industrielle. Paris: Seuil.
- Touraine, A. (1971). The Post-Industrial Society. Tomorrow's Social History: Classes, Conflicts and Culture in the Programmed Society. New York: Random House.
- Touraine, A. (1977). The Self-Production of Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- Touraine, A. (1981). The Voice and the Eye: An Analysis of Social Movements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Dubet, F., A. Touraine and M. Wieviorka (1983). Solidarity: The Analysis of a Social Movement: Poland 1980-1981. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Touraine, A. (1995). Critique of Modernity. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Touraine, A. (1999). "Chapter 9: Society Turns Back Upon Itself." The Blackwell Reader in Contemporary Social Theory. Ed. Anthony Elliott. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 1999.
- Touraine, A. (2000). Can We Live Together?: Equality and Difference. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
- Touraine, A. (2006). Le Monde des Femmes. Paris: Fayard.
- Touraine, A. (2007). New Paradigm for Understanding Today's World. Cambridge, Malden: Polity.
- Touraine, A. (2009). Thinking Differently. Cambridge, Malden: Polity.
References
- ^ Touraine, Alain (1955). L'évolution du travail ouvrier aux usines Renault. Paris: CNRS.
- ^ Birnbaum, Jane (9 June 2023). "Alain Touraine, a leading French sociologist, has died". Le Monde. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
- JSTOR 3322321.
- ^ Masson, Philippe (2017). Les enquêtes sociologiques en France depuis 1945. Paris: La Découverte. pp. 37–56.
- ^ Volkmar Gessner, David Nelken, European Ways of Law: Towards a European Sociology of Law (2007), p. 166.
- ^ Touraine, Alain (1977). Un désir d'histoire. Paris: Stock. pp. 64–67.
- ^ Touraine, Alain (1971). The May Movement: Revolt and Reform. Translated by Mayhew, Leonard. New York: Random House.
- JSTOR 2712981.
- ^ "Honoris causa: Alaine Touraine - UOC". www.uoc.edu. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
- ^ [1] Archived 31 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Temps de Lecture 2 min. (20 April 2014). "Légion d'honneur : Alain Touraine, Françoise de Panafieu et Renaud Lavillenie parmi les promus". Le Monde.fr. Lemonde.fr. Retrieved 25 April 2019.
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