L’état naissant et l’institution

This article reassesses the scientific legacy of Francesco Alberoni by foregrounding the theoretical centrality and originality of the concept of the “nascent state,” which serves as the generative core of his sociology of collective movements and affective life. Rooted in a sustained dialogue with the French sociological tradition—especially Edgar Morin and Alain Touraine—Alberoni’s work emerges from the postwar Italian context, where sociology struggled to institutionalize itself and where a broader “intellectual revolt” challenged dominant idealist and Marxist paradigms. The nascent state is conceptualized as a pre-ideological, fundamental experience that intertwines subjectivity, historicity, and social change, enabling a unified analysis of personal, dyadic, group-based, and collective dynamics. By extending this framework from collective behaviour to romantic love, Alberoni illuminates the inherent tension between innovation and institutionalization, as well as between creative and destructive forces within social transformation. The article shows the continuing relevance of Alberoni’s theory for understanding contemporary societies, in which creative effervescence is often absorbed by market logics but where non-commodifiable spaces of meaning and value persist. The conclusion raises the question of whether today’s sociological community may be on the verge of a new “cultural revolt” capable of resisting technocratic and utilitarian reductions of sociological knowledge.