The author begins by arguing that if many contemporary reflections on the relationships between state and society end in question marks, it is because we do not know which society it is we are talking about. Awareness of this limit then becomes an indispensable methodological tool in questioning current society which is shifting its investments to the symbolic dimensions of human action. Following this, the author examines the impact on this society of the fact that information has become the central resource in production and reproduction. He continues by focusing on the transformation of the logic of dominance and the ensuing obligation to articulate new tools of analysis and the need for a qualitative leap in sociological concepts in order to treat the issues raised by this new social reality. Herein lies the information problematic, as central resource, and its relationship to socialized individualization, which is characterized by the capacity to learn how to learn, and which brings into play a particular idea of the collective subject. As such, the problem for the researcher is to mark out the field of dilemmas and conflicts, and the conditions for the appearance of actors and social movements. The author concludes by underlining the fact that scientific research into the field is itself an element of the field, and, thus, that researchers, analysts and theorists are as much constructed by social action as contributors to its construction. The author ultimately argues that, for scientists, awareness of this is their only advantage and their only responsability.