Foucault and Latour: two outlines of social theory
Keywords:
actor-network theory, biopolitics, governmentality, association, archaeology, genealogy, Foucault, Latour, social theoryAbstract
The paper is dedicated to the study of actor-network theory of Bruno Latour and social theory of Michel Foucault. The research is based on the comparative analysis of both theories in the discourse of modern socio-humanitarian studies. The resemblance of both social theories, as well as historical succession of Latour’s theory (from Foucault’s) is noted. The author also constitutes principal “incompleteness”, the openness of Foucault’s and Latour’s projects to changes, and tries to demonstrate their advantage in comparison with other social theories. The fact of “openness” is seen as one of the advantages, as well as fundamentally different approach to research that is based on elimination of “metaobserving scientist” position and constitution of “the scientist who goes after the actors”. The author holds the position, according to which the practical use of the both theories may be productive in case of their synthesis (in which Latour’s ideas represent the conceptual crystallization of Foucault’s ideas, meanwhile, the ideas of Foucault can be seen as a sort of concretizing deployment of Latour’s general conceptual schemes). The demonstration of Foucault’s and Latour’s social theories “in action” is based on thought experiment which is related to the social theory, as well as to criminology. On the basis of modeled situation the author analyzes the approach to studying such situations in modern social theories that are based on ‘strict’ hierarchy, comparing this approach to the one, which is proposed by the actor-network theory and presented as ‘flexible’ approach.References
Deleuze, G. (2003). Nitsshe i filosofiya [Nietzsche and philosophy]. Moskva: Ad Marginem,
Foucault, M. (2012). Arheologiya znaniya [Archaeology of knowledge], Sankt-Peterburg: Its «Gumanitarnaya akademiya».
Foucault, M. (2011). Bezopasnost, territoriya, naselenie. Kurs lektsiy, prochitannyih v Kollezh de Frans v 1977–1978 uchebnom godu [Security, Territory, Population: Lectures course, read in Collège de France in years 1977–1978]. Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka.
Foucault, M. (2005). Intellektualyi i vlast: Izbrannyie politicheskie stati, vyistupleniya i intervyu. Chast 2 [Intellectuals and power: The selected political papers, speeches and interviews]. Moskva: Praksis.
Foucault, M. (2014). Muzhestvo istinyi. Upravlenie soboy i drugimi II. Kurs lektsiy, prochitannyih v Kollezh de Frans v 1983-1984 uchebnom godu [The Courage of Truth: Lectures course, read in Collège de France in years 1983-1984]. Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka.
Foucault, M. (1999). Nadzirat i nakazyivat. Rozhdenie tyurmyi [Discipline and punish: the birth of prison]. Moskva: Ad Marginem.
Foucault, M. (2007). Psihiatricheskaya vlast: Kurs lektsiy, prochitannyih v Kollezh de Frans v 1973 —1974 uchebnom godu [Psychiatric Power: Lectures course, read in Collège de France in years 1973 — 1974]. Sankt-Peterburg: Nauka.
Foucault, M. (2015). Rannie rabotyi [Early works]. Sankt-Peterburg:Vladimir Dal.
Foucault, M. (2010). Rozhdenie biopolitiki. Kurs lektsiy, prochitannyih v Kollezh de Frans v 1978 —1979 uchebnom godu [The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures course, read in Collège de France in years 1978-1979]. Sankt-Peterburg, Nauka.
Foucault, M. (1994). Slova i veschi [The order of things]. Sankt-Peterburg, A-cad.
Foucault, M. (1984). What is Enlightenment? In: The Foucault Reader, ed. by Paul Rabinow (p. 32–50). New York: Pantheon Books.
Gibson, J.J. (1988). Ekologicheskiy podhod k zritelnomu vospriyatiyu [Ecological approach to vi sual perception]. Moskva: Progress.
Latour, B. (2013). An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. (2006). Novogo Vremeni ne bylo. Esse po simmetrichnoy antropologii [We have never been Modern: An essay on symmetrical anthropology]. Sankt-Peterburg: Izdatelstvo Ev ropeyskogo universiteta v Sankt-Peterburge.
Latour, B. (2014). On Some Affects of Capitalism. Lecture given at the Royal Academy, Copenhagen.
[Електронне джерело]. Режим доступу: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/ 136-AFFECTS-OF-K-COPENHAGUE.pdf
Latour, B. (2014). Peresborka sotsialnogo: vvedenie v aktorno-setevuyu teoriyu [Reassembling the social: an introduction to Actor–network theory]. Moskva: Vysshaia shkola ekonomiki.
Latour, B. (2008). When things strike back: a possible contribution of ‘science studies’ to the social sciences. In: The British Journal of Sociology, vol. 51, iss. 1, . [Електронне джерело]. Режим доступу: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.sci-hub.io/doi/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2000.00107.x/ pdf#.
Latour, B. (1992).Where are the missing masses? The sociology of a few mundane artifacts. In: Shaping technology / building society: studies in sociotechnical change (p. 225–258). Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Downloads
-
PDF (Українська)
Downloads: 209
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).