Bruno Latour
Bruno Latour – Life, Thought, and Legacy
Discover the life, ideas, and influence of French thinker Bruno Latour (1947–2022). Explore his works, actor-network theory, ecological philosophy, and memorable quotations that shaped science studies.
Introduction
Bruno Latour (June 22, 1947 – October 9, 2022) was a French philosopher, anthropologist, and sociologist whose work transformed how we think about science, technology, politics, and nature. He is best known for developing actor-network theory (ANT), destabilizing the divide between nature and society, and championing a more relational, pluralistic worldview. Latour’s writings, from We Have Never Been Modern to Reassembling the Social and Politics of Nature, remain deeply influential in science and technology studies (STS), environmental humanities, and contemporary philosophy.
This article offers a comprehensive look at his life, major ideas, influence, and some of his memorable quotes that capture his intellectual spirit.
Early Life, Education & Intellectual Formation
Latour was born in Beaune, Burgundy, France, on June 22, 1947.
He initially studied philosophy, achieving success in the French competitive examinations (agrégation de philosophie) in the early 1970s. PhD in philosophical theology at the University of Tours, completing it in 1975. His doctoral thesis was titled Exégèse et ontologie : une analyse des textes de resurrection.
During and after his doctoral work, Latour turned toward anthropology and science studies. He conducted fieldwork in Ivory Coast (West Africa) under ORSTOM, examining issues of decolonization, industrial relations, and race.
His early intellectual influences included Michel Serres, ethnomethodology (Harold Garfinkel), semiotics (Greimas), and the history and philosophy of science.
In 1982, he joined the Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation (CSI) at École des Mines de Paris, where he would spend much of his academic life until 2006. Later, he became a professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he also directed the Medialab.
He held visiting and honorary positions at institutions such as the London School of Economics.
In recognition of his contributions, Latour received several honors, including the Holberg Prize (2013) and the Kyoto Prize (2021).
Major Works & Intellectual Contributions
Latour’s work spans several domains, but key themes revolve around science, modernity, networks, and the politics of nature.
Laboratory Life & Science in Action
One of Latour’s early influential works was a co-ethnography with Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (1979), which examined how scientific facts are produced in laboratories. The study argued that scientific knowledge is not a straightforward discovery but involves negotiations, inscriptions, interpretations, and networked actors (humans and instruments).
In Science in Action (1987), Latour extended this to the sociology of scientific practice. He proposed following scientists in the process of constructing knowledge, emphasizing the controversies, mediations, and instruments involved, rather than focusing only on the final “immutable mobile” results.
We Have Never Been Modern
His 1991 book Nous n’avons jamais été modernes, translated as We Have Never Been Modern, is among his most famous. In it, Latour critiqued the foundational myth of modernity: the strict separation between Nature and Society, and the notion that moderns can purge themselves of premodern beliefs.
He proposes nonmodernism (or amodernism) as an alternative: a perspective that treats human and nonhuman actors symmetrically, refusing to locate “society” as separate from nature. The idea is that modernity’s attempt at purification (separating nature and culture) never fully succeeds; rather, we live in a hybrid world.
Actor-Network Theory and Reassembling the Social
Latour is one of the principal architects of actor-network theory (ANT), along with Michel Callon and John Law. ANT holds that “actors” (or actants) include both humans and nonhumans (technologies, objects, natural entities), and that social structures are networks of mediated relations.
In Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network Theory (2005), Latour presented a more mature statement of his methodological and metaphysical commitments. He rejects the idea that “the social” is a distinct domain to be explained by underlying forces, and instead encourages scholars to trace associations and controversies. He introduces what he calls a “practical metaphysics,” in which claims made by actors are granted ontological weight.
He also argues that instead of deconstruction, scholars should focus on reassembling: building representations and networks that respect the complexity and multiplicity of actors.
Later Works & Ecological Turn
In his later years, Latour turned increasingly toward ecology, politics, and the Anthropocene. He challenged the idea of nature as a backdrop and pushed for recognizing Earth (Gaïa) as an active participant. His exhibition projects (e.g. Critical Zones) and writings explored how humans must renegotiate their relations with nonhumans in a world of ecological crisis.
He also engaged with the political dimension: a politics of nature in which nonhumans are given voice, and the protocols of decision-making include more-than-human agents.
Throughout, Latour persisted in questioning binary divisions—fact vs value, objective vs subjective, nature vs society—and urged an ontology of multiplicity, distribution, and relationality.
Legacy & Influence
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In science & technology studies (STS): Latour shaped a generation of scholars, turning attention to the practices, networks, controversies, and materiality behind scientific knowledge.
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In philosophy & anthropology: His relational ontology influenced debates around object-oriented ontology (OOO), new materialism, speculative realism, and posthumanism.
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In environmental humanities: His ecological turn provided intellectual tools to rethink human–earth relations, climate politics, and the concept of Gaia.
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Beyond academia: His ideas have filtered into architecture, design, political ecology, art (e.g. exhibitions), and public policy debates.
Latour’s influence also invites contention: critics have challenged him on issues of relativism, the status of science, and whether his symmetry between humans and nonhumans undermines distinctions needed for responsibility. Yet even critics concede the generative provocations of his work.
Personality & Intellectual Style
Latour was known not just for dense theoretical texts but for adopting a tone of curiosity, experiment, and rhetorical playfulness. He often used metaphors, case studies, narrative devices, and experimental methods to unsettle readers.
He avoided rigid dogmatism; instead, he embraced hesitation, multiplicity, and flexibility. One of his quotes reflects that orientation:
“My kingdom for a more embodied body.”
He believed in a plurality of ontologies—accepting that different actors inhabit and enact different realities. He encouraged scholars to assemble worlds rather than explain them.
His approach was pragmatic: rather than discarding science, he wanted to “rebuild trust in science” by making its workings visible and accountable.
Selected Quotes
Here are some memorable quotes that reflect Latour’s thought:
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“Reality is what resists.”
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“Technology is society made durable.”
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“Be not the one who debunks but the one who assembles, not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naive believers but the one who offers arenas in which to gather.”
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“Change the instruments and you will change the entire social theory that goes with them.”
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“If one looks at the works of Newton to Einstein, they were never scientists in the way modernity understands the term.”
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“The world is not a solid continent of facts… but a vast ocean of uncertainties speckled by a few islands of calibrated and stabilized forms.”
These lines gesture toward his ambition: to unsettle comfortable assumptions, to highlight networks and coexistence, and to cultivate an epistemic posture open to resistance and multiplicity.
Lessons from Bruno Latour’s Thought
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Don’t take the separation of nature and society for granted
Latour challenges the foundational modern dichotomy and invites us to see how “nature” is entangled with human practices, instruments, politics, and values. -
Trace relations, don’t impose structure
In studying phenomena, follow actors, mediators, controversies, and associations—rather than forcing them into pre-existing frameworks. -
Recognize the agency of nonhumans
Machines, organisms, technologies, infrastructures—they all intervene in social worlds and deserve analytical attention. -
Rebuild trust in scientific practice by making it transparent
Rather than idolizing the expert, show how science is built, negotiated, contested, and contingent. -
Pluralism and multiplicity are vital
There is no single ontology or perspective; we live amid many overlapping, contested worlds. -
Ecology demands new political imaginaries
In a time of climate crisis, human communities must rethink how they represent and act on behalf of Earth, beyond human exceptionalism.
Conclusion
Bruno Latour was a transformative thinker whose work reshaped how we conceive knowledge, science, and the relationship between humans and the nonhuman world. His intellectual trajectory—from laboratory ethnography to ecological philosophy—maps a journey of deepening concern over how modernity has misunderstood and misrepresented the entanglements that define our world.
His legacy lies not only in his concepts (actor-network theory, nonmodernism) but in the sensibility he fostered: one of openness, careful assembly, and humility before complex worlds. Latour urges us to become assemblers rather than debunkers, to craft more democratic and responsive modes of knowledge and politics, and to reimagine our place within a living Earth.