Theorising culture: Hermeneutical themes in the social theory of Alain Touraine

One of the most conspicuous social theoretical developments of the past several decades has been a 'cultural turn' which has seen a shift away from the view that social life is something that happens in 'structures' or 'systems' to the view that social life is ordered by meanings and beliefs. The shift to more culturalogical modes of thinking, however, has gone in a number of directions, and the outcomes have been uncertain. In this paper, I argue that a hermeneutical conception of culture opens up more fertile avenues of analysis. The possibilities opened up by such an approach are explored through the unmistakable, but implicit and unfinished hermeneutical turn evident in Alain Touraine's recent social theory.