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Reassembling the Social - An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Paperback, New ed)
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Reassembling the Social - An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Paperback, New ed)
Series: Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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Reassembling 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.
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