Books by Bruno Latour

With the rise of science, we moderns believe, the world changed irrevocably, separating us forever from our primitive, premodern ancestors. But if we were to let go of this fond conviction, Bruno Latour asks, what would the world look like? His book, an anthropology of science, shows us how much of modernity is actually a matter of faith. What does it mean to be modern? What difference does the scientific method make? The difference, Latour explains, is in our careful distinctions between nature and society, between human and thing, distinctions that our benighted ancestors, in their world of alchemy, astrology, and phrenology, never made. But alongside this purifying practice that defines modernity, there exists another seemingly contrary one: the construction of systems that mix politics, science, technology, and nature. The ozone debate is such a hybrid, in Latour's analysis, as are global warming, deforestation, even the idea of black holes. As these hybrids proliferate, the prospect of keeping nature and culture in their separate mental chambers becomes overwhelming-and rather than try, Latour suggests, we should rethink our distinctions, rethink the definition and constitution of modernity itself. His book offers a new explanation of science that finally recognizes the connections between nature and culture-and so, between our culture and others, past and present. Nothing short of a reworking of our mental landscape. We Have Never Been Modern blurs the boundaries among science, the humanities, and the social sciences to enhance understanding on all sides. A summation of the work of one of the most influential and provocative interpreters of science, it aims at saving what is good and valuable in modernity and replacing the rest with a broader, fairer, and finer sense of possibility.

"Opfindsom, engageret, velskrevet" ♥♥♥♥♥ – Politiken I dette flammeskrift nytænker den anerkendte, franske antropolog Bruno Latour forbindelserne mellem ulighed, globalisering og klimakrise. Ironisk takker han Donald Trumps klimafornægtelse og USA's udtrædelse af Paris-aftalen for at overbevise mange om, at nu må der handles. Klodens velstand koncentreres på færre og færre hænder, nationalismen blomstrer og hundredetusinder af mennesker er på flugt som følge af naturkatastrofer, superstorme og oversvømmelser Ifølge Latour er nationalstaten forældet som løsningsmodel for samtidens problemer med klima, migration og finansspekulation. Sociale og territoriale spørgsmål om, hvad vi er knyttet til og hvad vi kæmper for, hænger sammen, og det europæiske samarbejde – som historisk, innovativt eksperiment – må være rammen for at besvare politisk presserende spørgsmål på tværs af traditionelle, ideologiske skel. OM FORFATTEREN Bruno Latour (f. 1947) er antropolog og filosof og regnes for en af de største, nulevende franske tænkere. Han er professor ved Sciences-Po i Paris og har udgivet et utal af bøger og artikler.

In a new approach to philosophical anthropology, Bruno Latour offers answers to questions raised in We Have Never Been Modern: If not modern, what have we been, and what values should we inherit? An Inquiry into Modes of Existence offers a new basis for diplomatic encounters with other societies at a time of ecological crisis.

This highly original work presents laboratory science in a deliberately skeptical way: as an anthropological approach to the culture of the scientist. Drawing on recent work in literary criticism, the authors study how the social world of the laboratory produces papers and other "e;texts,"e;' and how the scientific vision of reality becomes that set of statements considered, for the time being, too expensive to change. The book is based on field work done by Bruno Latour in Roger Guillemin's laboratory at the Salk Institute and provides an important link between the sociology of modern sciences and laboratory studies in the history of science.

At være moderne er at kunne skelne mellem tro og viden, natur og kultur, ting og menneske. Men hvor skal vi placere fænomener som huller i ozonlaget, genmodificerede planter, reagensglasbørn, skovdød og global opvarmning? Er de naturlige eller menneskeskabte? Lokale eller globale? Begge dele? Moderne videnskab har produceret så mange komplekse teknologier og netværk, hvor kultur og natur er vævet ind i hinanden, at det bliver stadig vanskeligere i praksis at opretholde skellene mellem politik, videnskab, teknologi og natur.Vi har aldrig været moderne er en blændende analyse af paradokserne i det moderne, oplyste projekts distinktioner mellem naturvidenskab, humaniora og samfundsvidenskab, og et forsvar for en tænkning, der er hybrid og kompleks som verden selv.Latours ambitiøse og provokerende bog udkom første gang på fransk i 1991 og regnes i dag for en videnssociologisk klassisker.

Building on his earlier book We Have Never Been Modern, Bruno Latour develops his argument about the Modern fetishization of facts, or the creation of factishes.

Through case studies of scientists in the Amazon analyzing soil and in Pasteur's lab studying the fermentation of lactic acid, Latour shows us the myriad steps by which events in the material world are transformed into items of scientific knowledge.

Almost every town in France has a street named for Louis Pasteur-but did he alone stop people from spitting, persuade them to dig drains, influence them to get vaccinated? Latour makes the case that Pasteur's success depended upon a network of forces including the public hygiene movement, the medical profession, and colonial interests.