Bruno Latour

Lore & Background

Latour was related to the Burgundy winemaking family Maison Louis Latour. He originally focused on philosophy, ranking first in the French national competitive exam agrégation/CAPES de philosophie in 1972, and earned a PhD in philosophical theology at the University of Tours in 1975. He undertook fieldwork in Ivory Coast on behalf of ORSTOM, producing a monograph on decolonisation, race, and industrial relations. After teaching at the Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation of the École des Mines de Paris from 1982 to 2006, he became a professor at Sciences Po Paris (2006–2017), where he was scientific director of the Sciences Po Medialab. He retired from several university activities in 2017 and was also a Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics.

Latour's work challenged the subjective/objective division and redeveloped the approach to work in practice. He said in 2017 that he was interested in helping to rebuild trust in science and that some of the authority of science needs to be regained. Along with Michel Callon, Madeleine Akrich, and John Law, he developed actor–network theory, influenced by Harold Garfinkel's ethnomethodology, Algirdas Julien Greimas's generative semiotics, and Gabriel Tarde's sociology. He remained religious until the end of his life, reading the Bible 'devotedly.' He died from pancreatic cancer on 9 October 2022 at age 75; his papers were contributed to the French National Archives and the Municipal Archives of Beaune.

Reader's Guide

Bruno Latour's significance lies in his radical rethinking of how science and technology operate in society. Through actor–network theory, he argued that scientific facts are not discovered but constructed within networks of human and non-human actors, challenging traditional distinctions between nature and society, modern and pre-modern. His ethnographic study *Laboratory Life* (with Steve Woolgar) showed that laboratory practice involves subjective decisions about data, contradicting naive views of the scientific method. This provoked vehement rebuttals, with critics like Gross and Leavitt and philosopher John Searle arguing his position leads to absurd or comical results. Latour's work has had impact far beyond STS, influencing art history, history, philosophy, anthropology, geography, theology, literature, and law. He received the Holberg Prize in 2013, the Spinozalens in 2020, and the Kyoto Prize in 2021, though the Holberg award was criticized by philosopher Jon Elster as undeserved if judged by new knowledge criteria. His legacy includes a lasting challenge to how we understand objectivity, expertise, and the authority of science.

Did You Know?

• Latour was related to the Burgundy winemaking family Maison Louis Latour, but not to Château Latour in Bordeaux.
• He earned his PhD in philosophical theology with a thesis on the resurrection texts.
• He was awarded the Holberg Prize in 2013, which was criticized by philosopher Jon Elster.
• He remained religious until the end of his life, reading the Bible 'devotedly.'