Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales

Alain Touraine

Un nouveau paradigme. Pour comprendre le monde d'aujourd'hui

  • Alain Touraine
    Paris, Fayard, 2005


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    Making Sense of Our World: A New Paradigm.
    During the early modern period, the Western world analyzed and described social reality in political terms: order and anarchy, the king and the nation, revolution and the masses. Then, during the industrial revolution, modern capitalism became autonomous from governmental institutions. We started to think and act within a new economic and social paradigm, based on class structures, the accumulation of wealth, the resulting inequalities, and redistribution. In our own day, the triumph of globalization and individualism has shattered these traditional societal models. Within the context of mass production and culture, we attempt, on an individual basis, to dodge determinism and to build our lives on our own terms. The new paradigm within which we operate is mainly a cultural one. Hence the main dilemmas of our times: How should we treat social minorities? Should sexuality be central to all societal issues? Are traditional religious norms making a comeback? The former paradigms led us to think in terms of external progress and conquest. The new one brings us back to our own individuality. Meanwhile, as we witness the decline of a world that was run by men, we enter in a world of women.



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