A New Paradigm for Understanding Today's World

"How rare it is that one of the world's most original social theorists writes a book so plain and important that it could be used as an introductory text for first-year students. Alain Touraine's New Paradigm should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand today's world as it is coming to be." Charles Lemert, Wesleyan University

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A.Touraine, Director, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales Translated by G.Elliot

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* Contents * Introduction: A New Paradigm * Part One: When We Referred to Ourselves in Social Terms *1 The Break *9/11 * Fear * A world in decline * Where is meaning to be found? *2 Globalization * From the post-war states to the globalization of the economy * An extreme capitalism * The rupturing of societies * Alter-globalism * From society to war * A globalized world *3 Europe: A State without a Nation * The decline of the national state * Is European unity possible? * The EU and the USA * The European state * European powerlessness * The absence of a European consciousness *4 The End of Societies * The social representation of societies * The European mode of modernization * Society and modernity * The crisis of representation * The three deaths of European society * The irruption of democracy * The return of the political * Farewell to society * The war above us * When system and actors separate off * The rupturing of the social bond * Are we witnessing the end of social movements? * Conclusion *5 Revisiting the Self * What is modernity? * The victory of modernity * The end of social thinking * Emancipatory individualism * Forms of social determinism * From focusing on the world to focusing on the self * The awakening of the subject * Part Two: Now that We Refer to Ourselves in Cultural Terms *6 The Subject * The subject and identity * Sources of the subject * Defence of sociology * The individual subject * Rights * Are we all subjects? * The negation of the subject * A related note * The subject, social movements and the unconscious * Proximity * The subject and religion * The subject and the school * The experience of being a subject * The anti-subject * Between gods and societies *7 Cultural Rights * Political rights and cultural rights * Minorities, multiculturalism, communitarianism * Redistribution and recognition * The new social movements * Modernizations * Entry into the post-social world * Sexual rights * The limits of cultural mixing * About the 'veil' * Communities and communitarianisms * Liberals and communitarians * Secularism * Inter-cultural communication * Return to new ideas *8 A Society of Women * An altered situation * Equality and difference * Sexuality and gender * The woman-subject * The role of men * Post-feminism * The Argument: By Way of Conclusion * Bibliography * Name Index * Subject Index

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