The “Political Ecology” of Bruno Latour

2018 ◽  
pp. 90-104
Author(s):  
Frédéric Neyrat
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Actor Network

Chapter 7 is an overview of the work of the French thinker, Bruno Latour and how his recent thinking and writing seems to align well with those thinkers who place themselves in the camps of ecomodernism and postenvironmnetalism. While Neyrat begins by espousing the importance and scholarly merit of Latour’s Actor-Network-Theory, which allows a myriad of fields to further examine non-anthropocentric conceptions of how we represent human worlds aesthetically, politically, and socially. The rest of the chapter is a critique of Latour’s recent thinking in its promotion of technological development and what Neyrat describes as Latour’s “political ecology.” To do this, Neyrat performs a careful and critical reading of Latour’s essay, “Love Your Monsters: Why We Must Care For Our Technologies As We Do Our Children.” Using the story of Frankenstein as his vehicle, Latour explains our continual suspicion and distrust for technological advancements, that is, “our monsters,” with which we must come to terms with having to care for.

scholarly journals The interface between political ecology and actor-network theories: exploring the reality of waste

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swatiprava Rath ◽  
Pranaya swain
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Consumption Pattern ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Actor Network

<p>Human-environment relationship is a prominent discourse in many academic disciplines. Initial studies in social sciences viewed nature being independent of society but gradually researchers proved that both are related and dependent upon each other. Current studies confirm the association between humans and the environment which changes with time and space. Waste is part of the human environment and is ubiquitous. Climate change, environmental pollution, and vulnerabilities associated with it have been major concerns for policymakers, activists, and academicians across the globe over the past couple of decades. The report of International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 2006 delineated waste management as an important part of urban infrastructure having close relation to issues of urban lifestyle, resource consumption pattern, income level, jobs, socio-economic and cultural factors. According to World Bank estimation in 2018, waste generation will increase from 2.01 billion tones in 2016 to 3.40 billion tones in 2050. However, despite its significance in the academic world, the waste remains under-theorized. The meaning and value of waste vary from person to person and also from culture to culture. Rapid urbanization and globalization have led to the social, economic and political crisis with an increased amount of waste. The multidimensional nature of waste creates the need for interpreting it in a distinct way. With the help of theoretical pluralism, this paper aims at explaining the concept of waste through the theoretical lens of political ecology and actor-network theory. The political ecology perspective aims at explaining the environmental issues by analyzing the political-economical causes and provides the alternative for solving the issue. The actor-network theory explains the environmental issues by studying the association among actors at various scales with a special focus on the power interest of the actors as the cause of such association. These two approaches can be integrated based on the pragmatic approach and can help in understanding the complex reality of waste. The paper views that societal problems like waste can be studied with the use of both these theories with a firm hold on the context as they tend to transcend the dualism between nature and society. </p>

Der große Leviathan und die Akteur-Netzwerk-Welten

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
Core Questions

Is Bruno Latour a ‘state thinker’? His intensive examination of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan certainly forms an important linchpin of and a link to understanding his wide-ranging and interdisciplinary work. Asking about Latour’s understanding of the state proves to be a promising approach to addressing core questions in actor-network theory, to Latour’s time-diagnostic critique of modernity and to his search for the prospects of future political collectivity. The contributions collected here present various approaches to Bruno Latour’s work on problems of statehood and political collectivity, on his analysis of law, on his concept of power and on his political ecology, as well as on how his thinking connects to matters of international relations and the theory of publics. With contributions by Lorina Buhr, Anne Dölemeyer, Filipe dos Reis, Graham Harman, Arjen Kleinherenbrink, Leander Scholz, Hagen Schölzel, Jan Christoph Suntrup, Sjoerd van Tuinen und Daniel Witte.

scholarly journals Bruno Latour, actor-networks, and the critique of critical sociology

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Spasic
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Critical Sociology ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Actor Networks

The paper analyzes the theoretical opus of Bruno Latour and his treatment of the concept of critique. In the first section "actor-network theory" is presented through its key notions (actant, network, translation, associations) together with Latour?s theory of modernity. In the second section various aspects of the relation between Latour and critique are discussed - first his own criticism of others (standard sociology and especially "critical", i.e. Bourdieu?s sociology), then the criticisms aimed at his work, to conclude with the political ambivalences of Latour?s attempt to develop an "acritical" social theory. .

scholarly journals The interface between political ecology and actor-network theories: exploring the reality of waste

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swatiprava Rath ◽  
Pranaya swain
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Consumption Pattern ◽  
The Political ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Actor Network

<p>Human-environment relationship is a prominent discourse in many academic disciplines. Initial studies in social sciences viewed nature being independent of society but gradually researchers proved that both are related and dependent upon each other. Current studies confirm the association between humans and the environment which changes with time and space. Waste is part of the human environment and is ubiquitous. Climate change, environmental pollution, and vulnerabilities associated with it have been major concerns for policymakers, activists, and academicians across the globe over the past couple of decades. The report of International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 2006 delineated waste management as an important part of urban infrastructure having close relation to issues of urban lifestyle, resource consumption pattern, income level, jobs, socio-economic and cultural factors. According to World Bank estimation in 2018, waste generation will increase from 2.01 billion tones in 2016 to 3.40 billion tones in 2050. However, despite its significance in the academic world, the waste remains under-theorized. The meaning and value of waste vary from person to person and also from culture to culture. Rapid urbanization and globalization have led to the social, economic and political crisis with an increased amount of waste. The multidimensional nature of waste creates the need for interpreting it in a distinct way. With the help of theoretical pluralism, this paper aims at explaining the concept of waste through the theoretical lens of political ecology and actor-network theory. The political ecology perspective aims at explaining the environmental issues by analyzing the political-economical causes and provides the alternative for solving the issue. The actor-network theory explains the environmental issues by studying the association among actors at various scales with a special focus on the power interest of the actors as the cause of such association. These two approaches can be integrated based on the pragmatic approach and can help in understanding the complex reality of waste. The paper views that societal problems like waste can be studied with the use of both these theories with a firm hold on the context as they tend to transcend the dualism between nature and society. </p>

Talking about Associations and Descriptions or a Short Story about Associology

2017 ◽  
pp. 220-233
Author(s):  
Beate Ochsner
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Agency And Structure

In 1999, Bruno Latour advocated for “abandoning what was wrong with ANT, that is ‘actor,' ‘network,' ‘theory' without forgetting the hyphen.” However, it seems that the “hyphen,” which brings with it the operation of hyphenating or connecting, was abandoned too quickly. If one investigates what something is by asking what it is meant as well as how it emerges, by (re-)tracing the strategy in materials in situated practices and sets of relations, and, by bypassing the distinction between agency and structure, one shifts from studying “what causes what” to describing “how things happen.” This perspective not only makes it necessary for us to clarify the changing positions and displacements of human and non-human actors in the assemblage, but, also question the role (the enrolment) of the researcher him/herself: What kind of “relation” connects the researcher to his/her research and associates him/her with the subject, how to prevent (or not) his/her own involvement, and, to what degree s/he ignores the relationality of his/her writing in a “sociology of association?”

Deploying an ‘Out of Space' Technology

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-65
Author(s):  
Samo Grasic ◽  
Maria Udén
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Delay Tolerant Network ◽  
Space Technology ◽  
Project Development ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Delay Tolerant

This study investigates how environments into which new technologies are introduced interact and interfere with the deployment process, the deployed technologies as well as the research conducted. The material that is used in this study draws from the N4C project development and deployment of Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) technology in the remote Arctic villages of Ritsem and Staloluokta. As the development of DTN technology prior to the deployment was conducted primarily in the laboratories, its usability and functionality still needed to be proven on the field of deployment. Here, Actor Network Theory (ANT) was employed to reveal how climate, flora, fauna and other elements present in the field of deployment interacted and interfered with, but more importantly, drove the technological development and the continued research work.

From the Sacred to the Sacred Object

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Sayes ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Rene Girard ◽  
Michel Serres ◽  
Sacred Object ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The philosophy of Bruno Latour has given us one of the most important statements on the part played by technology in the ordering of the human collective. Typically presented as a radical departure from mainstream social thought, Latour is not without his intellectual creditors: Michel Serres and, through him, René Girard. By tracing this development, we are led to understand better the relationship of Latour’s work, and Actor-Network Theory more generally, to traditional sociological concerns. By doing so we can also hope to understand better the role that objects play in structuring society.

From coal to cool: Reordering nature in post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-163
Author(s):  
Anne Gry Sturød
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Tourism Destination ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Rule Out

The article studies the transformation of a Kyrgyz coal-mining village into a tourism destination. By combining political ecology research approaches with concepts borrowed from Actor Network Theory (ANT), I attempt to show how nature-based tourism development contributes to a reordering of nature in certain ways rather than others. Supported by my empirical material, I suggest that this reordering of nature makes certain realities emerge, while others submerge. However, while some orderings of natures appear to be representing reality, it does not necessarily rule out multiple understandings of how nature “ought to look” or be used.

scholarly journals Latour and Literary Studies

PMLA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
pp. 737-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Felski
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Style Of Thought

I am interested in questions of reading and interpretation. I am also drawn to actor-network theory and the work of Bruno Latour. Can these attractions be brought into alignment? To what extent can a style of thought that describes itself as empiricist and rejects critique speak to the dominant concerns of literary studies? Can actor-network theory help us think more adequately about interpretation? Might it inspire us to become more generous readers? How do literary studies and Latourian thought engage, enlist, seduce, or speak past each other? What duels, rivalries, intrigues, appropriations, or love affairs will ensue?

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