Bruno Latour

Bruno Latour, (1947, Beaune) est sociologue, anthropologue et philosophe des sciences. Il a longtemps enseigné dans des écoles d’ingénieur, le CNAM d’abord, puis l’Ecole des Mines où il avait rejoint le Centre de sociologie de l’innovation en 1982. Depuis septembre 2006, il est professeur des Universités à Sciences Po. Depuis juin 2007, il a été nommé directeur adjoint de Sciences Po, chargé de la politique scientifique. Depuis juin 2007, il est également président du comité Culture de la Fondation de France.

Connu pour ses travaux en sociologie des sciences, il a mené des enquêtes de terrain où il observe des scientifiques au travail et décrit le processus de recherche scientifique d’abord comme une construction sociale. Il a également mis en cause l’exclusivité des matériaux « sociaux » dans la « construction » des faits scientifiques, abandonnant le constructivisme social pour une théorie plus large de l’acteur-réseau. Ses ouvrages les plus connus sont La Vie de laboratoire (1979), La Science en action (1987) et Nous n’avons jamais été modernes (1991). Après avoir été commissaire de l’exposition Iconoclash, il a organisé en 2005 une autre exposition, toujours avec Peter Weibel, au ZKM de Karlsruhe La Chose politique- Atmosphères de la démocratie deux expositions qui ont toutes les deux fait l’objet de volumineux catalogues aux presses du MIT, Cambridge, Mass

Bruno Latour, born in 1947 in Beaune, Burgundy, from a wine grower family, was trained first as a philosopher and then an anthropologist. From 1982 to 2006, he has been professor at the Centre de sociologie de l’Innovation at the Ecole nationale supérieure des mines in Paris and, for various periods, visiting professor at UCSD, at the London School of Economics and in the history of science department of Harvard University. Since 2006, he is teaching at Sciences Po. Since June 2007, he is deputy director of Sciences Po, in charge of the scientific policy. Since June 2007, he is president of the culture comittee of Fondation de France.
After field studies in Africa and California he specialized in the analysis of scientists and engineers at work. In addition to work in philosophy, history, sociology and anthropology of science, he has collaborated into many studies in science policy and research management. He has written Laboratory Life (Princeton University Press), Science in Action, and The Pasteurization of France. He also published a field study on an automatic subway system Aramis or the love of technology and an essay on symmetric anthropology We have never been modern. He has also gathered a series of essays, Pandora’s Hope:Essays in the Reality of Science Studies to explore the consequences of the « science wars». After having directed several thesis on various environmental crisis, he published a book on the political philosophy of the environment Politics of Nature (all of those books are with Harvard University Press and have been translated in many languages).
In a series of books in French, he has been exploring the consequences of science studies on different traditional topics of the social sciences: religion in Sur le culte moderne des dieux faitiches (to be published in English) , and Jubiler ou les tourments de la parole religieuse, and social theory in Paris ville invisible, a photographic essay on the technical & social aspects of the city of Paris (now available on the web in English Paris Invisible City). After a long field work on one of the French supreme Courts, he has recently published a monograph la Fabrique du droit-une ethnographie du Conseil d’Etat (to be published in English). A new presentation of the social theory which he has developped with his colleagues in Paris is available at Oxford University Press, under the title: Reassembling the Social, an Introduction to Actor Network Theory.
After having curated a major international exhibition in Karlsruhe at the ZKM center, Iconoclash beyond the image wars in science, religion and art, he has curated another one also with Peter Weibel Making Things Public The atmospheres of democracy which has closed in October 2005 (both catalogues are with MIT Press).


Awards and Honors:
1992: Bernal Prize awarded by the 4S Society.
1992: Prix Roberval du Livre et de la Communication grand public (for Aramis ou l’amour des
techniques).
1996: Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Lund, Sweden.
2005: Spinoza Chair, University of Amsterdam, Spring 2005.
2006: Doctorate Honoris Causa, University of Lausanne.
2007: A one week international meeting held in Cerisy at the occasion of his 60th birthday.
2008: Doctorate Honoris Causa, University of Montreal.
2008: Medal of Honor Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Bologna.
2008: Elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, Mass.
2008: Recipient of the Siegfried Unseld Prize for his life achievements (Frankfurt).
2008: Doctor Honoris causa of the University of Goteborg.
2009: Doctor Honoris causa of the University of Warwick.

A lire

Bruno Latour, Steve Woolgar, La vie de laboratoire, La découverte-Poche, Paris, 2003.
Bruno Latour, Changer de société – refaire de la sociologie, La Découverte, Paris, 2006

Liens

Site officiel de Bruno Latour
Article dans Multitude web, « Bruno Latour : “Il faut organiser le tâtonnement” » par Nicolas Weil Lien

Exposition Iconoclash – fabrication et destruction des images en science, en religion et en art, 2002 Lien
Exposition Making Things Public – La chose publique, atmosphère de la démocratie, 2005 Lien