Science in Action (Paperback)

Bruno Latour

ISBN 10: 0674792912 / ISBN 13: 9780674792913

Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1988

About this Item

Paperback. Science and technology have immense authority and influence in our society, yet their working remains little understood. The conventional perception of science in Western societies has been modified in recent years by the work of philosophers, sociologists and historians of science. In this book Bruno Latour brings together these different approaches to provide a lively and challenging analysis of science, demonstrating how social context and technical content are both essential to a proper understanding of scientific activity. Emphasizing that science can only be understood through its practice, the author examines science and technology in action: the role of scientific literature, the activities of laboratories, the institutional context of science in the modern world, and the means by which inventions and discoveries become accepted. From the study of scientific practice he develops an analysis of science as the building of networks. Throughout, Bruno Latour shows how a lively and realistic picture of science in action alters our conception of not only the natural sciences but also the social sciences and the sociology of knowledge in general.This stimulating book, drawing on a wealth of examples from a wide range of scientific activities, will interest all philosophers, sociologists and historians of science, scientists and engineers, and students of the philosophy of social science and the sociology of knowledge. Emphasizing that science can only be understood through its practice, the author examines science and technology in action: the role of scientific literature, the activities of laboratories, the institutional context of science in the modern world, and the means by which inventions and discoveries become accepted. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780674792913

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Science in Action (Paperback)
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674792912
• ISBN 13: 9780674792913
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

A foundational text of science and technology studies from the field’s most celebrated theorist.

Science and technology have an immense impact on every aspect of society, but how exactly are scientific facts produced? In this lively and authoritative classic, Bruno Latour reveals that social context is as important as technical content when it comes to understanding how science works.

Latour’s focus is not on what scientists say but on what they do, from the day-to-day practice of gathering data and writing technical papers to the travel and networking required to secure funding. Observing the scientific enterprise with the analytical distance of an ethnographer participating in a foreign culture, he argues that science is driven not by value-neutral discoveries of objective truths and natural laws but by the elaboration of longer and stronger networks encompassing both people and things. Only by mobilizing a wide range of human and nonhuman actors―fellow scientists, bureaucrats, specimens, instruments, calculation devices, texts, microbes―can “fact-builders” successfully accumulate the authority needed to convert a novel, tendentious claim into an accepted truth.

Setting a pioneering agenda for the social studies of science, Science in Action marshals a wealth of vivid examples to challenge conventional disciplinary boundaries and introduce readers to the disorienting conceptual universe of actor-network theory. Playful, irreverent, and unremittingly provocative, it remains among Latour’s most significant works.

About the Author

Bruno Latour was Professor Emeritus at Sciences Po Paris. He was the 2021 Kyoto Prize Laureate in Arts and Philosophy and was awarded the 2013 Holberg International Memorial Prize.