Towards a Social Theory of the Event

The reflection on the event has had a certain tradition in social French theory of 20th century. Nevertheless, this historical presence has been irregular: there were stages of complete invisibility and phases in which the event has had a bit more of prominence. In the 70s and 80s of the 20th century the analysts claimed the event as a response to the structuralism, which monopolized the research of the central decades of that century. It was a theoretical claim and to a lesser extent, empiricist, in search of an exit to the closed social systems described by structuralism. This article proposes to recover this theoretical contribution. However, modern societies seem to be different from solidly structured societies described in the 20th century. We wonder if the event is the same. That is to say, if the event is a way of change in societies who live in a permanent change. It will test, then, the current validity of those reflections on the event and, where appropriate, this theory will be updated according to a new contemporary reality.