Alain Touraine (1925–2023)

Touraine’s book is a tour de force on the challenges of the current phase of modernity, which he calls the hypermodern. His book is a combination of sociology of action, historical analysis of the stages of modernism and the need of the hypermodern age to focus on the “subjectivation” of social and individual existence to avoid the destructive aspects of the age. He praises social movements of feminism, the priority of human rights over law (including the fundamental rights of liberty, equality and respect for others) and the fight against climate change. He rejects all deterministic theories (including the Marxist and neoliberal varieties) and maintains that the main feature of modern society has been the ability of human kind to create its own society and therefore history, which has now reached its height in the hypermodern. (On the process of freeing himself from the constraints of economic determinism, he cites the work of Joseph Stieglitz). He sees each phase of modern society as being fashioned by the interaction of three independent elements-- the material civilization (or economic system) of the society, the cultural and intellectual elements that interpret the material civilization and the social conflicts that are inherent in that society. He contrasts subjectivation in the hypermodern phase with “desubjectivation” which he enumerates to include the destructive tendencies of modern life including religious and nationalist beliefs and ideologies that exclude the “other,” the economic pressures of neoliberalism (i.e., capitalism) that are having destructive effects on the environment and the practices of dictatorial/totalitarian regimes.… (mais)