Archive for the ‘Social theory’ Category

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Enemies like Bruno Latour

8 February 2012

Two recordings of talks in the “My Best Fiend” series at Goldsmiths discussing Latour (among others), by David Oswell from Goldsmiths and Steve Fuller from the University of Warwick, have now been made available at the CSISP blog.

  • David Oswell: ‘Dances with Wolves: Latour, Machiavelli and Us’ (December 6th, 2011) [The first part of the title in fact alludes to the "wolf" metaphor that emerged from The Prince and the Wolf debate]
  • Steve Fuller: ‘Bruno Latour and Some Notes on Some Also Rans’ (December 13th, 2011)

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Posted in Actor-network-theory, Bruno Latour, Social theory, STS, Talks | Leave a Comment »

The New in Social Research

24 January 2012

Spring 2012 seminar series at CSISP and the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, London

  • Feb 7:  Alex Taylor | Microsoft Research – Executable biology: at the borderlands of technoscience
  • Feb 21: Matt Fuller and Graham Harwood | Goldsmiths – Database as Funfair
  • Feb 28: Evelyn Ruppert |Open University – Doing the Transparent State: Methods and their Subjectifying Effects/Affects
  • March 7: Bruno Latour | Science Po, Richard Rogers|University of Amsterdam – Digital Societies: between ontology and methods
  • March 20: Javier Lezaun | University of Oxford – Cinematography and the Discovery of Social Kinetics
  • March 27: ECDC | Goldsmiths – Energy Communities and Design Interventions

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Posted in Conferences, Social theory, Sociology | 1 Comment »

Forthcoming events with Callon, Latour et al.

24 January 2012

20 February 2012,  18:00 – 19:30 – Bruno Latour at the Science Gallery in Dublin.

7 March 2012, 16:30 – 19:00 -  Bruno Latour & Richard Rogers:  “Digital societies: between ontology and methods,” at Goldsmiths, London

30 March 2012 – 12:30 – 16:30 – Michel Callon, Fabian Muniesa, Adam Leaver and Karel Williams: “How Methods Move in Markets,” at Open University, Camden, London

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Posted in Actor-network-theory, Conferences, Economic sociology, John Law, Michel Callon, Organization studies, Social theory, STS | 1 Comment »

A new book on Bruno Latour

30 July 2011

Anders Blok and Torben Elgaard Jensen’s book on Latour has now come out in English: Bruno Latour: Hybrid Thoughts in a Hybrid World, published by Routledge. (The original Danish version came out in 2009, the same year in which Harman’s Prince of Networks was published.)

French sociologist and philosopher, Bruno Latour, is one of the most significant and creative thinkers of the last decades. Bruno Latour: Hybrid Thoughts in a Hybrid World is the first comprehensive and accessible English-language introduction to this multi-faceted work. The book focuses on core Latourian themes:

  • contribution to science studies (STS – Science, Technology & Society)
  • philosophical approach to the rise and fall of modernity
  • innovative thoughts on politics, nature, and ecology
  • contribution to the branch of sociology known as ANT – Actor-Network Theory.

With ANT, Latour has pioneered an approach to socio-cultural analysis built on the notion that social life arise in complex networks of actants – people, things, ideas, norms, technologies, and so on – influencing each other in dynamic ways. This book explores how Latour helps us make sense of the changing interrelations of science, technology, society, nature, and politics beyond modernity.

Contents:

  1. On the Trails of Bruno Latour’s Hybrid World
  2. Anthropology of Science
  3. Philosophy of Modernity
  4. Political Ecology
  5. Sociology of Associations
  6. Conclusion: The Enlightenment Project of Bruno Latour
  7. ‘We would like to do a bit of science studies with you…’ An Interview with Bruno Latour

Posted in Actor-network-theory, Books, Bruno Latour, philosophy, Science Studies, Social theory, Sociology, STS | 1 Comment »

The Prince and the Wolf on Kindle

9 July 2011

Kindle editions of The Prince and the Wolf: Latour and Harman at the LSE are now also available on Amazon US and Amazon UK. Somewhat counter-intuitively though the electronic edition is only available for pre-order and according to Amazon it will only be released on the official publication date (29 July 2011), while they’ve been happily selling the paperback version for the last 10 days. In fact Amazon US now seems to have run out of the paperback, although it’s still available on Amazon UK. An alternative source for US customers is The Book Depository, which not only has free shipping to the US but (rather controversially) has just been bought by Amazon last week.

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Posted in Actor-network-theory, Books, Bruno Latour, Graham Harman, Object-oriented philosophy, philosophy, Social theory, speculative realism | Leave a Comment »

The curious marketing fate of human curiosity

4 March 2011

A presentation by Professor Franck Cochoy, CERTOP, University of Toulouse

‘The curious marketing fate of human curiosity: Technologizing consumers’ inner states to build market attachments‘

Wednesday March 16th, 4-6pm
Goldsmiths, University of London
Richard Hoggart Building, Room 308

Abstract:

STS has done a terrific job in exploring the sociology of technical devices, but in so doing it has somewhat tended to neglect the properties of human subjects. I would like to suggest a more symmetrical analytical approach, by focusing on some market dynamics that bring “devices” and “dispositions” together. More precisely, I would like to focus on a particular disposition – curiosity – and the technologies market professionals have developed as a means to seduce consumers. The idea is that, more than any other disposition, focusing on curiosity can help in understanding how market professionals and technologies, in playing on human subjects’ inner states, may reinvent their very identity and behavioral logic. I will show that from Genesis to the curiosity cabinets of the 15th-18th centuries, to modern shop windows and the “teasing” strategies of today’s advertising, seducers and merchants have constantly built “curiosity devices”, that have helped ordinary persons to become curious and/or to become consumers. In the process, they have freed themselves from previous action schemes – routine and tradition for example –, as well as coming to behave in patterns very different from those  understood according to the more familiar logics of interest and calculation. The contemporary commercial game introduces a real market of consumer drives, where “Blue Beard’s curiosity” ends up facing a real “rainbow market” of competing dispositions.

Organised by the Department of Sociology, Goldsmith University of London

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Posted in Actor-network-theory, Economic sociology, Social theory, Sociology, STS, Talks | Leave a Comment »

The ANT and the SPIDER

4 March 2011

Here at ANTHEM we like discussions between fairytale characters like PRINCES and WOLVES, especially if they are talking about social theory and philosophy. So here is a hilarious exchange between an ANT and a SPIDER about actor-network theory. It should raise a chuckle or two:

Ingold, T. (2008). When ANT Meets SPIDER: Social Theory for Arthropods. Material Agency. C. Knappett and L. Malafouris: Springer US: 209-215.

‘You are SPIDER, and you stand for the proposition that Skilled Practice Involves Developmentally Embodied Responsiveness. I appreciate your views; they are indeed worth their weight IN GOLD (which is very little, I might add, since you are such a lightweight creature). But I am ANT. I stand for Actor Network Theory. Not for nothing am I known as THE TOWER among arthropods. For my philosophy towers over yours’.

Thank you to Van Troi Tran for the link.

Posted in Actor-network-theory, philosophy, Social theory | Leave a Comment »

Why is it so difficult to be a materialist?

25 February 2011

Videos of two Bruno Latour lectures:

“Where is res extensa? An Anthropology of Object” (Although he says at the start that it should have been entitled instead “The Extension of res extensa: Why is it so difficult to be a materialist?”) Keynote Lecture at the 2010 IKKM Annual Conference, Weimar, 29 April 2010. (Hat tip Continental Philosophy)

The other one is entitled “Do Objects Reside in res extensa and If Not Where are They Located?” Architectural Association, London, 22 February 2011. There are some links on this page also to two Latour papers that are being cited. (Thanks to Ofer for the pointers.)

Posted in art, Bruno Latour, philosophy, Social theory, STS, Video recordings | Leave a Comment »

Imagining Business 2

22 December 2010

Submission deadline extended to 15 January 2011 for the 2nd EIASM Workshop on Imagining Business, focusing on “VISUALS & PERFORMATIVITY: RESEARCHING BEYOND TEXT,” to take place in Segovia, Spain, 19-20 May 2011.

Following the success of the 1st Imagining Business Workshop in Oxford, 2008, this second event seeks to examine ideas and approaches which go beyond a focus upon text in order to explore the impact of images, pictures, signs, sounds and passions on the process of organizing. A process which also goes beyond traditional ideas of business and into many areas of our lives.

By bringing together academics from a wide range of disciplines and approaches (e.g. organizational theory, accounting, anthropology, geography, art, sociology, communication studies, architecture, philosophy, social studies of technology, etc…), this event will provide an arena in which to discuss and debate different ways of imagining the complex process of organizing.

Special Guest Speakers are:

  • Mario Biagioli – Harvard University – History of science
  • Jacques Fontanille – Université de Limoges – Semiotics
  • Nigel Thrift (TBC)- University of Warwick – Geography

The Organising Committee members are Paolo Quattrone – IE Business School, François-Régis Puyou – Audencia, Nantes School of Management and Chris Mclean – Manchester Business School.

Posted in Actor-network-theory, Call for papers, Conferences, Organization studies, Science Studies, Social theory | Leave a Comment »

CfP: Development through ANT

26 November 2010

Call for Papers: Understanding Development Through Actor-Network Theory

[reposted from CoPEH-Canada]

This is a call for papers on use of actor-network theory in development studies, with an initial deadline for abstracts of 10 January 2011.

Actor-network theory has emerged over the past twenty years as a major conceptual force in social science. To date, though, it has hardly been applied within development studies. Yet the potential for ANT in the study of development has never appeared greater. The growing recognition of agency, process and relations among all development actors. The greater use of networks of individuals and organisations to deliver development. The increasing role played by technology in development processes. All these point to a prospective value of actor-network theory in helping us understand development today.

We are therefore organising a workshop and journal special issue to bring together new work applying actor-network theory in international development research. Our aim is to explore the extent to which ANT can improve our understanding of development.

At this initial stage, we wish to retain as broad a scope as possible for papers; from the more conceptual to the more practical; from those engaging with the overall ANT project to those which apply particular tools and sub-concepts; and from those which value ANT to those which critique its application in development. In all cases, we will be looking for some reflection on the contribution that ANT can make.

The following timeline will be observed:

- 10 January 2011 – prospective authors to submit an abstract of 200-400 words outlining their proposed paper to: ant4dev@gmail.com

- 1 February 2011 – authors to be notified of response to abstract

- 31 May 2011 – draft papers due (7,000-9,000 words), and workshop rapporteurs appointed

- 30 June 2011 – workshop in London for presentation and discussion of papers

- 30 Sept 2011 – finalised papers due

Some travel funding will be made available for attendance at the London workshop. Papers will still be considered from those who are unable to attend the workshop.

We will collate a selection of submitted papers for publication as a special issue in one of the leading development studies journals. Selected papers will be subject to further review in line with journal submission procedures.

If you have any queries prior to abstract submission, do please ask.

Richard Heeks (IDPM, University of Manchester, UK) & Shirin Madon (DESTIN, LSE, UK); Email: ant4dev@gmail.com

Call URL: http://bit.ly/ANT4DCall

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