Thinking Differently

In his previous books Alain Touraine analysed the great changesthat have transformed our personal and collective lives; in thisnew book he shows that we need to transform our ways of thinkingabout these changes. The very idea of society is in crisis:globalization and the liberation of desires from taboos have led tothe collapse of the old social order. In our societies today, goodand evil can no longer be defined by institutions; self-awarenessis more important than the awareness of rules and subjects havebecome their own creators. Taking as his starting point a critique of what he calls theDominant Interpretive Discourse, which tried throughout thetwentieth century to impose the idea of a society without actorsthat was subject to various kinds of determinism (especiallyeconomic determinism), Touraine argues that the only principle thatallows us to evaluate individual behaviour and social situations isthe recognition of the political, social and cultural rights of allhuman beings, who are viewed as free and equal. The individual mustbe seen as a subject and treated as the cornerstone of areconstructed sociology. Whereas some denounce individualism, theauthor celebrates a subjectivation that involves the defence of therights of all against all modes of social integration. This generalline of argument is made concrete through an analysis of thesubordination of women, the exclusion of minorities and thedifficulties young people face at school and at work. This major new book represents in many ways the culmination oftwenty years of theoretical reflection which began with Critique ofModernity and which have established Touraine as one of the leadingfigures of contemporary social thought.