Reassembling The Social: An Introduction To Actor Network Theory

311 Pages·2009·1.31 MB·English

Reassembling the
Social
An Introduction to
Actor-Network-Theory
Bruno Latour
1
REASSEMBLING THE SOCIAL
The Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies are jointly organised by
Oxford University Press and the Sa¨ıd Business School. Every year a leading
internationalacademicisinvitedtogiveaseriesoflecturesonatopicrelated
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CLARENDON LECTURES IN MANAGEMENT STUDIES:
TheModernFirm
OrganizationalDesignforPerformanceandGrowth
JohnRoberts
ManagingIntellectualCapital
Organizational,Strategic,andPolicyDimensions
DavidTeece
ThePoliticalDeterminantsofCorporateGovernance
PoliticalContext,CorporateImpact
MarkRoe
TheInternetGalaxy
ReflectionsontheInternet,Business,andSociety
ManuelCastells
BrokerageAndClosure
AnIntroductiontoSocialCapital
RonBurt
ReassemblingtheSocial
AnIntroductiontoActor-Network-Theory
BrunoLatour
Science,Innovation,andEconomicGrowth(forthcoming)
WalterW.Powell
TheLogicofPosition,TheMeasureofLeadership
PositionandInformationintheMarket(forthcoming)
JoelPodolny
GlobalCompaniesinthe20thCentury(forthcoming)
LeslieHannah
3
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction:HowtoResumetheTaskofTracing
Associations 1
PartI:HowtoDeployControversies
AbouttheSocialWorld
IntroductiontoPartI:LearningtoFeedoffControversies 21
FirstSourceofUncertainty:NoGroup,OnlyGroupFormation 27
SecondSourceofUncertainty:ActionIsOvertaken 43
ThirdSourceofUncertainty:ObjectstooHaveAgency 63
FourthSourceofUncertainty:MattersofFactvs.
MattersofConcern 87
FifthSourceofUncertainty:WritingDownRiskyAccounts 121
OntheDifficultyofBeinganANT:AnInterludein
theFormofaDialog 141
PartII:HowtoRenderAssociations
TraceableAgain
IntroductiontoPartII:WhyisitsoDifficultto
TracetheSocial? 159
HowtoKeeptheSocialFlat 165
FirstMove:LocalizingtheGlobal 173
SecondMove:RedistributingtheLocal 191
ThirdMove:ConnectingSites 219
viii Contents
Conclusion:FromSocietytoCollective—Canthe
SocialBeReassembled? 247
Bibliography 263
Index 281
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book has passed through many avatars. It began almost thirty
yearsagowhenIhadthechanceofbeingtaughtprimatesociologyby
Shirley Strum and her baboons in Kenya. Although that project with
Shirleyhasremainedinlimbo,ithasbeenthestapleofmyteachingof
sociologytoyoungengineersattheSchoolofMinesinParis.When,in
1996,Iwasoffered to give theLeclerclectures inLouvain-la-Neuve,I
decided it was about time to synthesize what I had learned from
Michel Callon, John Law, Madeleine Akrich, Andy Barry, Annemarie
Mol,AntoineHennion,andmanyothersinwhathadbecomeknown
as‘Actor-Network-Theory’.Timeandagain,Ihavefoundthatreaders
were puzzled not so much by our views on scientific practice and
various other topics, but rather by the unusual meaning we gave to
the words ‘social’ and ‘social explanations’. And yet, this alternative
social theory has never been the object of a systematic introduction.
Insteadofcomplainingthatthissmallschoolofthoughthadbecomea
monster that had escaped its Frankensteinian makers, I decided
it might be fairer to present interested readers with its intellectual
architecture.
It was only in 1999, when Barbara Czarniawska asked me to give a
crash course in social theory ‘compatible with the needs of organiza-
tion studies’, that I began to write down a complete draft. Although
the present text has not made use of the transcript Barbara had so
kindly arranged for,I owe much to her and to her Go¨teborg students
for the organization of the material that, in addition, had been re-
hearsed at the London School of Economics in the Department of
Information Systems in the winters of 1999, 2000 and 2001. When
myoldfriendSteveWoolgar,throughtheauspicesoftheSa¨ıdBusiness
School,askedmetogivetheClarendonLectures inthefallof2002,I
wroteanotherdraftwhichhassincebeendiscussedinvaryingdegrees
of detail by Andrew Barry, Howie Becker, Geof Bowker, Franc¸ois
Cooren, Didier Debaise, Gerard de Vries, Emilie Gomart, Fabian
Muniesa, Noortje Marres, Shirley Strum, Albena Yaneva, Benedikte
Zitouni, and Edgar Whitley that has resulted in this new version.
Finally, it was submitted to a second round of critiques by Michael
Flower,Jean-ToussaintLeca,MichaelLynch,PaoloQuattrone,Isabelle
Stengers and Eduardo Vargas. I wish I could say that all remaining
defectsaretheirsandnotmine.
x Acknowledgements
My greatest debt goes, however, to the doctoral students who have
participated over the years in my ‘thesis-writing workshops’. In a
discipline in which I have never been trained but to which I have
never despaired of contributing, they have been my best and most
patientteachers.
I hope that such a protracted and idiosyncratic genesis goes some
way toward explaining the opinionated nature of this piece of work.
Now that this alternative social theory has been presented in an or-
derly fashion, readers can decide to put it to use, to distort it beyond
recognition,or,mostlikely,todropitaltogether—butthistimeknow-
ingly! As for me, I have finally discovered in writing this book the
conditionsunderwhichIcouldbeproudofbeingcalledasociologist.