Touraine completed his khâgne (preparatory school) at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, and entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1945.

Touraine conducted field research at the Renault auto factory in Boulogne-Billancourt in Paris, which would lead to his first sociological monograph, published in 1955.

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.

[3] Touraine's 1955 study of Renault articulated the "ABC" theory of automation which was adopted by 1960s radical sociologists of the "new working class," including Serge Mallet.

While in Poland, he developed the research method of "Sociological Intervention," which had been outlined in "The Voice and the Eye" (La Voix et le Regard) [1981].

[10] Touraine received the Legion of Honour in 2014 during his daughter Marisol’s mandate as French Minister of Social Affairs.