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.