Reassembling the Social

An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory

Bruno Latour (, Sciences-Po, Paris)

$295

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Oxford University Press
01 August 2005

Social & political philosophy; Society & Social Sciences; Society & culture: general; Social theory; Social, group or collective psychology; Organisational theory & behaviour

Series: Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies

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.

By: Bruno Latour ( Sciences-Po Paris)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 163mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9780199256044
ISBN 10: 0199256047
Series: Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 01 August 2005
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: How to Resume the Task of Tracing Associations Part I: How to Deploy Controversies About the Social World 1: Learning to Feed from Controversies 2: First Source of Uncertainty: No Group, Only Group Formation 3: Second Source of Uncertainty: Action is Overtaken 4: Third Source of Uncertainty: Objects Too Have Agency 5: Fourth Source of Uncertainty: Matters of Fact vs. Matters of Concern 6: Fifth Source of Uncertainty: Writing Down Risky Accounts 7: On the Difficulty of Being an ANT - An Interlude in Form of a Dialog Part II: How to Render Associations Traceable Again 8: Why is it So Difficult to Trace the Social? 9: How to Keep the Social Flat 10: First Move: Localizing the Global 11: Second Move: Redistributing the Local 12: Third Move: Connecting Sites 13: Conclusion: From Society to Collective - Can the Social be Reassembled?

Reviews for Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory

`...both an important theoretical social science work and a useful primer for social research generally.' The New Zealand Geographical Society `Latour's book can also serve, not so much as a model to copy, but certainly as a source of inspiration for how to write a social science text: vividly, engagingly, eloquently.' Organization Studies