Alain Touraine was a sociologist of social movements. He was director of studies at the Ecole des hautes études en Sciences sociales.
The news was reported by the newspaper Lìbération, later confirmed by the scholar's daughter, former minister Marisol Touraine. In his studies and texts he has followed and described the dynamics of change in society from the post-war period onwards. In "La voix et le regard", a work published in 1978, a synthesis on the sociology of these new movements of students, feminists, advocates of regionalism.