Alain Touraine, sociologist, researcher and director of studies at the School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), died on Friday night, his family announced. He was 97.
Born in 1925, a graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in History and a graduate of the EHESS, he began his research in the post-war France, marked by major transformations in the world of work under the impetus of reconstruction and the Trente Glorieuses. It was in the mines of the North, the workshops of the Renault factories in Boulogne-Billancourt or in those of South America that he discovered the systems involved. These first experiences will mark his work for a long time and will pave the way for a deep reflection on industry and the world of work. Influenced by the work of Georges Friedmann, whom he frequented at the CNRS, Alain Touraine joined the EHESS in the 1960s.
May-68 and the democratic revolutions in the East, particularly in Poland, inspired him to reflect on social movements and their political impacts. Alain Touraine is the father of Marisol Touraine, former minister of François Hollande, and Philippe Touraine, professor of endocrinology at Pitié-Salpétrière.
