Bruno Latour: science studies, actor-network theory, and political ecology

Key concepts and approach

Latour is best known as a principal developer of actor‑network theory (ANT), an analytic framework that investigates how heterogeneous actors — including instruments, texts, institutions and nonhuman entities — come together to generate scientific facts, technologies and social order. His method emphasized fieldwork in laboratories and the careful description of how claims are constructed, stabilized or contested. He preferred a symmetrical analysis that follows both technical and social elements without privileging one over the other.

Major works

• Laboratory Life (1979), co‑authored with Steve Woolgar: an ethnography of a scientific laboratory that demonstrated how facts are socially produced.
• Science in Action (1987): an account of scientific practice that follows ideas as they become accepted or fail.
• We Have Never Been Modern (1991): a critique of the modern separation between nature and society and a proposal to rethink that division.
• Facing Gaia (2017) and later writings: work addressing politics, ecology and how societies respond to environmental crises.

Career and positions

Latour held positions at several institutions during his career, teaching and researching at places such as the École des Mines de Paris, Sciences Po in Paris and the London School of Economics. His interdisciplinary appointments reflected a commitment to bridging philosophy, sociology, history and anthropology of science.

Influence and legacy

Latour's work reshaped science and technology studies (STS), influencing historians, sociologists, anthropologists and designers. He was widely cited and sparked debates about constructivism, realism and the political responsibilities of scientists and citizens. His insistence on following the processes that produce knowledge continues to inform research on innovation, environmental policy and public trust in expertise.