Le Sujet de l'Acteur : An Anthropological Outlook on Actor-Network Theory

In the past few years, the Actor-Network Theory of French philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour has become a hotly debated topic in the humanities. From a philosophical perspective, his theory of things keeps being reevaluated: is it possible for 'Human and Non-Human Actors' (Latour) to be analyzed as equally important actors? Does Latour's theory of a simultaneously 'agency' of things and concepts indeed move beyond a subject-object relation? If it does, how far does it in fact go? Is it possible to develop a common new ontology by moving away from the notion of substance, and instead reducing any kind of entities to what they reveal in the course of their (inter)action?The contributions to Le Sujet de l'Acteur are looking for interferences between the idea of agency and cultural dynamics. How can we relate questions of (social) action with those of cultural manifestations? Focusing on questions of symmetry or dissymmetry between the world of 'things' and 'human beings', the volume includes contributions from the fields of social studies, literary studies, and philosophy. Although the contents are categorized in systematic and historical aspects, all contributions draw on the importance of case studies for the theoretical framework, either starting with systematic questions that are then answered exemplary, or starting from historical cases as well as theoretical options.