Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-TheoryReassembling the Social is a fundamental challenge from one of the world's leading social theorists to how we understand society and the 'social'. Bruno Latour's contention is that the word 'social', as used by Social Scientists, has become laden with assumptions to the point where it has become misnomer. When the adjective is applied to a phenomenon, it is used to indicate a stablilized state of affairs, a bundle of ties that in due course may be used to account for another phenomenon. But Latour also finds the word used as if it described a type of material, in a comparable way to an adjective such as 'wooden' or 'steely'. Rather than simply indicating what is already assembled together, it is now used in a way that makes assumptions about the nature of what is assembled. It has become a word that designates two distinct things: a process of assembling; and a type of material, distinct from others. Latour shows why 'the social' cannot be thought of as a kind of material or domain, and disputes attempts to provide a 'social explanations' of other states of affairs. While these attempts have been productive (and probably necessary) in the past, the very success of the social sciences mean that they are largely no longer so. At the present stage it is no longer possible to inspect the precise constituents entering the social domain. Latour returns to the original meaning of 'the social' to redefine the notion, and allow it to trace connections again. It will then be possible to resume the traditional goal of the social sciences, but using more refined tools. Drawing on his extensive work examining the 'assemblages' of nature, Latour finds it necessary to scrutinize thoroughly the exact content of what is assembled under the umbrella of Society. This approach, a 'sociology of associations', has become known as Actor-Network-Theory, and this book is an essential introduction both for those seeking to understand Actor-Network Theory, or the ideas of one of its most influential proponents. |
Contents
Action Is Overtaken | |
Objects too Have Agency | |
Matters of Fact vs Matters | |
Writing Down Risky Accounts | |
An Interlude in the Form | |
Why is it so Dicult to Trace | iii |
How to Keep the Social Flat | xi |
Localizing the Global | xxiii |
Other editions - View all
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory Bruno Latour No preview available - 2007 |
Reassembling the Social:An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory: An ... Bruno Latour No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
actant action actor-network actors agencies allowed assembled baboons become Boltanski Bruno Latour Callon Cambridge causality Chicago circulate Cognition collective complete confusing constructivism context controversies critical sociology cultural define definition deploy dicult discipline domain empirical entities epistemology existence explain follow frame Gabriel Tarde Garfinkel global human interactions intermediaries inuence landscape Laurent Thévenot Luc Boltanski material matters of concern matters of fact means mediators metaphor metaphysics metrology Michel Callon Michel Foucault movement nature never non-humans non-social notion objects offer once Paris political relevance possible practical question reason reexive render role science studies Science Wars scientific sense simply social aggregates social explanation social forces social sciences social scientists social theory social world society sociologists sociologists of associations sociology of science sort source of uncertainty structure Tarde Thévenot things trace traceable transformed transported University Press visible word