Together with Touraine and François Dubet [fr], Wieviorka developed the method of intervention sociologique and employed it to the study of militant social movements, in particular French anti-nuclear activism and student leagues, but also the famous trade union Solidarność in Poland.

Following Max Weber's classic concept of interpretative sociology (verstehende Soziologie), intervention sociologique aims at understanding the subjective rationale of actors in the context of larger social conflicts.

This concept was opposed to Raymond Boudon's failed attempt to establish a strict rational choice approach in French sociology.

Wieviorka is the director of the Centre d'Analyses et d'Interventions Sociologique (CADIS) at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, which was established by Alain Touraine in 1981.

In 1989, he was the first scholar to receive the Bulzoni Editore Special Award of the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology and Social Sciences, for his book Société et terrorisme (1988, English edition The Making of Terrorism 1993).