Alain Touraine, sociologist, researcher and study director at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), died overnight from Thursday to Friday, his family announced. He was 97 years old.
Born on August 3, 1925 in Hermanville-sur-Mer (Calvados), normalien agrégé in history and graduate of the EHESS, he began his research in post-war France, marked by significant transformations in the world of work under the impetus of reconstruction and the Trente Glorieuses. It is in the mines of the North, the workshops of the Renault factories of Boulogne-Billancourt or in those of South America that he discovers the systems involved and tries to decipher them. These first experiences will mark his work for a long time and will open the way to a deep reflection on industry, the world of work and the conflicts they can create. Influenced by the work of Georges Friedmann, whom he frequented at the CNRS, Alain Touraine joined the EHESS in the 1960s.
May 1968, then the democratic revolutions in the East, particularly in Poland, inspired him to reflect on social movements and their political impact. An analysis that he will continue throughout his life, even looking into the case of the Yellow Vests in recent years. It will also be interested in the emergence of new societal struggles under the cultural prism, and in particular that for the place of women in society.
His plethoric work includes Sociology of Action (1965), The May Movement or Utopian Communism (1968), Post-Industrial Society (1969), Critique of Modernity (1982), What democracy ? (1994) or How to get out of liberalism? (1999).
Commander of the Legion of Honor and officer of the National Order of Merit, Alain Touraine is the father of Marisol Touraine, former minister of François Hollande, and Philippe Touraine, professor of endocrinology at Pitié-Salpétrière.
