Creativity and Critique: Subjectivity and Agency in Touraine and Ricoeur (Social and Critical Theory, 4)

Constructing a dialogue between the social theory of Alain Touraine and the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, this work locates the wellsprings of the renewed intepretative powers of Touraine's recent sociology of the subject and critique of modernity in an implicit and unfinished, but unmistakable 'hermeneutical turn'. This Work Locates The Wellsprings Of Touraine's Renewed Interpretive Power In An Implicit And Unfinished, But Unmistakable 'hermeneutical Turn.' To Deepen And Extend His Potent But Only Partly Developed Insights, The Second Part Of The Book Develops His Hermeneutical Premises More Explicitly, Through A Dialogue With The Hermeneutical Philosophy Of Paul Ricoeur. The Outcome Is A Critical Hermeneutics Of The Subject, Which Opens New Possibilities For Theorising Human Agency And Social Creativity, And Renews The Project Of Critical Theory.--jacket. Ch. 1. Proto-hermeneutics -- 1. Actionalist Sociology -- Culture -- Action -- 2. Transitions -- 3. The Hermeneutical Turn -- Ch. 2. The Actor As Subject -- 1. Critique Of The Rationalist Conception Of Action -- 2. The Subject As Dissident -- Freedom -- Memory -- Communication? -- 3. The Ambiguity Of Action -- Ch. 3. Horizons Of Modernity -- 1. Constitutive Conflicts -- 2. Decomposition -- 3. Intersections -- Ch. 4. Critical Hermeneutics -- 1. The Conflict Of Interpretations -- 2. Textuality -- Ch. 5. The Subject As Actor -- 1. Critique Of Rationalism -- 2. The Situated Subject -- Ontology: Embodiment And Becoming -- Language -- Narrativity -- Dialogicity -- Universalism And Particularism. By Glenda Ballantyne. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [197]-203) And Index. Many commentators have noted the fertile new intellectual period Critique of Modernity opened up in the social theory of Alain Touraine, but until now its innovations have not been the subject of a sustained analysis. This work locates the wellsprings of Touraine's renewed interpretive power in an implicit and unfinished, but unmistakable ‘hermeneutical turn.'To deepen and extend his potent but only partly developed insights, the second part of the book develops his hermeneutical premises more explicitly, through a dialogue with the hermeneutical philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. The outcome is a critical hermeneutics of the subject, which opens new possibilities for theorising human agency and social creativity, and renews the project of critical theory. Many commentators have noted the fertile new intellectual period Critique of Modernity opened up in the social theory of Alain Touraine, but until now its innovations have not been the subject of a sustained analysis. This work locates the wellsprings of Touraine's renewed interpretive power in an implicit and unfinished, but unmistakable 'hermeneutical turn.' To deepen and extend his potent but only partly developed insights, the second part of the book develops his hermeneutical premises more explicitly, through a dialogue with the hermeneutical philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. The outcome is a critical hermeneutics of the subject, which opens new possibilities for theorising human agency and social creativity, and renews the project of critical theory