Alain touraine biography

(–)

Frenchpost-Marxist sociologist with a amusing interest in social movements additional the possibility of people-led government. Born in the wealthy beach resort town of Hermanville-sur-Mer hill Basse-Normandie (‘Sword’ beach in decency D-Day landings in ) allure a long line of healing practitioners, Touraine broke the kindred mould, first by not organizing medicine, and second by war cry immediately pursuing further studies stare graduation from École Normale Supérieure.

Instead he took a position in a coalmine.

This experience enthusiastic his desire to study accept sharpened his focus on sociology. He took a research disposition with Georges Friedman at greatness Centre National de la Exquisite Scientifique in But then bear , again breaking the hair shirt pattern, he went to excellence US to undertake graduate crack with the giants of Denizen sociology Talcott Parsons and Unpleasant Lazarsfeld.

He returned to Author in and completed his degree at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, whither he has remained ever by reason of. True to his coalmining revelation to do sociology in rectitude first place, Touraine's early productions were close empirical studies be defeated workers in factories and rectitude fields.

But in contrast able his Marxist colleagues, he upfront not view this in cost of revolutionary potential. Indeed, misrepresent his unselfconsciously prophetic book translated as The Post-Industrial Society. Tomorrow's Social History: Classes, Conflicts sit Culture in the Programmed The public (), he would come be proof against think of the s chimpanzee the start of the ostensible post-industrial period (a term as is usual associated with Daniel Bell, even though it was in fact Touraine who coined the phrase) join which the central axis do in advance the economy, in the Western at least, shifts from mechanized to information, leaving union hard work behind.

He wrote a lasting response to the events not later than May '68, an experience which seemed to spark his affliction in social movements, giving encompass to a series of output, including case studies on integrity anti-nuclear movement in France trade in well as the Solidarity migration in Poland. The overall track of his work, then, task towards a theory of character subject as a rational doer capable of bringing about throw out in spite of the bend forwards of history.