Alain Touraine

French sociologist, best known for being the originator of the term "post-industrial society". His work is based on a "sociology of action," meaning that society shapes its future through structural mechanisms and its own social struggles. His key interest for most of his career was with social movements. He studied and wrote extensively on workers' movements across the world, particularly in Latin America and more recently in Poland.

Touraine was the father of two children: Marisol, who served as the French Minister of Social Affairs and Health from 2012 to 2017 in the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault and Manuel Valls; and Philippe, a professor of endocrinology at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.

He died on 9 June 2023 at age 97 in Paris.