- Paperback: 280 pages
- Publisher: Polity Press; First British Edition edition (29 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0745645747
- ISBN-13: 978-0745645742
- Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 1.9 x 22.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,059,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
‘Once again, as so many times before, by thinking differently Alain Touraine allows us to do the same. No one so easily cuts against the grain to show his readers how better to join the hard boards of social and political life.′
Charles Lemert, author of Thinking the Unthinkable
Charles Lemert, author of Thinking the Unthinkable
‘Touraine′s analyses of modernity and the subject, of social movements and of the meaning of freedom, are concise, original and indeed provocative for all those who cling to conventional wisdoms. The book combines wisdom with commitment, the experience of the scholar with the relentless questioning typical of a great mind.′
Peter Wagner, Trento University
Product Description
In his previous books Alain Touraine analysed the great changes that have transformed our personal and collective lives; in this new book he shows that we need to transform our ways of thinking about these changes. The very idea of society is in crisis: globalization and the liberation of desires from taboos have led to the collapse of the old social order. In our societies today, good and evil can no longer be defined by institutions; self–awareness is more important than the awareness of rules and subjects have become their own creators.
Taking as his starting point a critique of what he calls the Dominant Interpretive Discourse, which tried throughout the twentieth century to impose the idea of a society without actors that was subject to various kinds of determinism (especially economic determinism), Touraine argues that the only principle that allows us to evaluate individual behaviour and social situations is the recognition of the political, social and cultural rights of all human beings, who are viewed as free and equal. The individual must be seen as a subject and treated as the cornerstone of a reconstructed sociology. Whereas some denounce individualism, the author celebrates a subjectivation that involves the defence of the rights of all against all modes of social integration. This general line of argument is made concrete through an analysis of the subordination of women, the exclusion of minorities and the difficulties young people face at school and at work.
This major new book represents in many ways the culmination of twenty years of theoretical reflection which began with Critique of Modernity and which have established Touraine as one of the leading figures of contemporary social thought.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For a sociologist so well-known across Europe, Alain Touraine remains comparatively anonymous in the English-speaking world. This is a great shame, as Thinking Differently has a great deal to say about sociology in the 21st century. Touraine's appeal to the rights of all individuals as part of the processes of modernity resonates with much of today's news - take for example discussions over the wearing of the veil amongst Muslim women in France, or Western sympathy with voters in Iran.
The author's recent work with women, in particular, on how they have asserted themselves in the face of institutions provides great insight as to why we should take the individual subject as the centre-point of sociological study.
The author's recent work with women, in particular, on how they have asserted themselves in the face of institutions provides great insight as to why we should take the individual subject as the centre-point of sociological study.
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