Intervista a Bruno Latour

Abstract

Bruno Latour is a renowned author whose works have influenced all branches of social sciences in the last thirty years. After his path-breaking ethnographies of scientific laboratories and the development, alongside M. Callon, of Actor-Network-Theory, his recent works focus mainly on political ecology and the issue of global warming. In this interview, we have asked Latour to retrace the path that, following a more linear trajectory than one might expect, brought him from the sociology of scientific knowledge to deal with political ecology.According to Latour, the concerns that stood at the core of his works on science and technology can provide deeper insights into the politics of climate change. What geologists have recently named as the “Anthropocene” (that is, our current geological era marked by anthropogenic climate change) is a hybrid entity just like the socio-technical networks he had described in Laboratory Life and Science in Action. Only by developing a social science that is hospitable to non-human entities is it possible to imagine a way to deal politically with environmental issues.The ecological crisis calls for a readjustment of political affects similar to the one that was brought about by the social question between XIX and XX centuries, that is, one that entails an alliance between social sciences, politics, science, and arts. Latour’s own recent work, by engaging in collaborations with both scientists and artists, points in this direction.