The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the French sociologist Alain Touraine's diverse analytical and theoretical contributions on the social, cultural and political realities of Latin America. Starting from the idea that the author's main concerns refer to the dynamics of Latin American modernity, we seek to understand how this theme is complemented with observations on democracy and the social subject. We are interested in showing that for Touraine, Latin American modernity is characterized by an inevitable tension: between an "instrumental universe" and a "symbolic universe", correlate of a ever present dual image of rationalization and subjectivation. From here, Touraine moves on to analyze the political and social potential that underlies the idea of subject and social actor. Finally, we emphasize the contributions that can be perceived in his concrete analyses of social movements that today make up part of the heterogeneous Latin American scene: the neo-Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico; the landless peasant and rural workers movement, and in a more generic sense, urban movements, ecology, Black, youth, women's and intercultural education movements.
Alain Touraine; Latin American modernity; the social subject; social movements; democracy