Creativity and Critique ─ Subjectivity and Agency in Touraine and Ricoeur

Contemporary social theorist Alain Touraine offers a more far-reaching hermeneutical dimension than either Giddens or Habermas, argues Ballantyne (sociology, Swinburne U. of Technology, Australia), but he undermines it by refusing to take up the project systematically. She develops a dialogue between him and Paul Ricoeur, one of the leading exponents of contemporary philosophical hermeneutics, in order to fill out the account. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Glenda Ballantyne, Ph.d. (2001) in Sociology, La Trobe University, is Lecturer in Sociology at Swinburne University of Technology, Lilydale. Her research interests include social theory, social movements, multiple modernities, historical sociology, cultural diversity, agency, identity and subjectivity and, hermeneutics.