Alain Touraine, sociologist of social movements, director of studies at the Ecole des hautes études en Sciences sociales, died last night. He was 97. The news was reported by the newspaper Lìbération, later confirmed by the scholar's daughter, former minister Marisol Touraine.
Alain Touraine, author of many works on social issues, was one of the most important and well-known intellectuals of the "gauche", appreciated even on the right. In his studies and texts he has followed and described the dynamics of change in society from the post-war period onwards.
He began with the study and observation of the work of the workers, with a thesis on those of Renault. Then, after May 1968, his attention also focused on the 'new social movements' that dealt with themes other than that of the workers' movement seen from a socialist perspective. 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, Touraine asked himself if "the time of social struggles, of class relations, of social movements, is not over?".
