Creativity and Critique

Constructing a dialogue between the social theory of Alain Touraine and the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, this work locates the wellsprings of the renewed intepretative powers of Touraine's recent sociology of the subject and critique of modernity in an implicit and unfinished, but unmistakable 'hermeneutical turn'.

Introduction
In a recent discussion of Alain Touraine’s contribution to social theory, one
commentator notes that Touraine stands out among the social theorists who
participated in the broad intellectual movement for the renewal of social theory
which emerged in the late nineteen sixties. Confronting a theoretical landscape
largely petrified in various versions of structuralism, functionalism,
objectivism and empiricism, this project of renewal revolved around attempts
to reintroduce agency, language and historicity into social theory, and notable
contributions were made by theorists such as Jürgen Habermas and Anthony
Giddens. However, Peter Wagner suggests, Touraine alone has managed to
keep this project alive in changing historical and theoretical contexts, and to
develop his social theory while remaining faithful to its basic assumptions.1
If Touraine’s theoretical trajectory has proved more responsive than other
comparable projects to new social and intellectual circumstances, a closer
look at the source of its strengths seems warranted. The crucial development
in this regard is not difficult to pinpoint; as a number of writers have noted,

Download FREE

Uploading.com

DepositFiles.com

Uploadbox.com

No Mirror(s) Please !!!