Can Object Be an Actor? On Bruno Latour’s Sociology of Artifacts

社会学评论 ›› 2023, Vol. 11 ›› Issue (2) : 191-211.

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ISSN 2095-5154 CN 10-1098/C
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社会学评论 ›› 2023, Vol. 11 ›› Issue (2) : 191-211.

Can Object Be an Actor? On Bruno Latour’s Sociology of Artifacts

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Bruno Latour’s“sociology of artifacts”provides a new path to solve the opposition of binary theories nowadays. In contrast to the“purification” thinking of objects among previous social theories, Latour highlights“irreducibility”as a counterpart to fill the gap of underestimating objects in those social theories. His theoretical remapping means taking a departure from the“Sociologist Leviathan”with the help of objects to stabilize social links. The history of objects is hence identical to this history of humans. Latour also reinterprets the concept of“action”to elaborate on how objects can contribute to the talk of agency issues, which means making divergences in the relational network later on. At last, this paper will critically evaluate Latour’s contributions to contemporary social theories.

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Can Object Be an Actor? On Bruno Latour’s Sociology of Artifacts[J]. Sociological Review of China, 2023, 11(2): 191-211
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