ABSTRACT

Alain Touraine’s analysis of social movements has been highly influential in shaping an area of investigation which is now large and well established within both sociology and political science. He recognized earlier than perhaps anyone else the significance of social movements not merely as objects of empirical investigation, but also as stimuli to the development of social science itself. 1 At the same time he has written extensively on social theory both at what might be called a ‘meta-theoretical’ level (his theory of social action) and at a more middle-range level (his contribution to the analysis of industrial and post-industrial society and of the transition from the one to the other). In this chapter I shall explore the relationship between these levels of Touraine’s work. It seems to me that it is impossible to understand any one of them without reference to the others, and yet that there are unresolved tensions and inconsistencies between them.