Bruno Latour: An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns (2012–) [FR, EN]

“In this new book, Bruno Latour offers answers to questions raised in We Have Never Been Modern, a work that interrogated the connections between nature and culture. If not modern, he asked, what have we been, and what values should we inherit? Over the last twenty-five years, Latour has developed a research protocol different from the actor-network theory with which his name is now associated—a research protocol that follows the different types of connectors that provide specific truth conditions. These are the connectors that prompt a climate scientist challenged by a captain of industry to appeal to the institution of science, with its army of researchers and mountains of data, rather than to “capital-S Science” as a higher authority. Such modes of extension—or modes of existence, Latour argues here—account for the many differences between law, science, politics, and other domains of knowledge.

Though scientific knowledge corresponds to only one of the many possible modes of existence Latour describes, an unrealistic vision of science has become the arbiter of reality and truth, seducing us into judging all values by a single standard. Latour implores us to recover other modes of existence in order to do justice to the plurality of truth conditions that Moderns have discovered throughout their history. This systematic effort of building a new philosophical anthropology presents a completely different view of what Moderns have been, and provides a new basis for opening diplomatic encounters with other societies at a time when all societies are coping with ecological crisis.”

French edition
Publisher La découverte, Paris, 2012
504 pages

English edition
Translated by Catherine Porter
Publisher Harvard University Press, 2013
ISBN 0674724992, 9780674724990
520 pages

Reviews: Muecke (of FR ed., Los Angeles Review of Books, 2012), Norton (Interstitial, 2013), Hennion (Science, Technology, & Human Values, 2013), Davis (Reviews in Cultural Theory, 2014), Dusek (NDPR, 2014), Hebbing (Diffractions, 2014), Foster (Science and Technology Studies, 2014), Choat (Global Discourse, 2014).
Commentary: Skirbekk (Radical Philosophy, 2015).

Another Turn after ANT: An Interview with Bruno Latour by John Tresch (Social Studies of Science)
An Introduction to AIME by Latour, video, 16 min.

Participatory web platform of the project
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Publisher (FR)
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Enquête sur les modes d’existence. Une anthropologie des Modernes (French, added on 2013-9-26)
English translation was removed on 2013-9-20 upon request of the publisher.

Matthew K. Gold (ed.): Debates in the Digital Humanities (2012)

“Encompassing new technologies, research methods, and opportunities for collaborative scholarship and open-source peer review, as well as innovative ways of sharing knowledge and teaching, the digital humanities promises to transform the liberal arts—and perhaps the university itself. Indeed, at a time when many academic institutions are facing austerity budgets, digital humanities programs have been able to hire new faculty, establish new centers and initiatives, and attract multimillion-dollar grants.

Clearly the digital humanities has reached a significant moment in its brief history. But what sort of moment is it? Debates in the Digital Humanities brings together leading figures in the field to explore its theories, methods, and practices and to clarify its multiple possibilities and tensions. From defining what a digital humanist is and determining whether the field has (or needs) theoretical grounding, to discussions of coding as scholarship and trends in data-driven research, this cutting-edge volume delineates the current state of the digital humanities and envisions potential futures and challenges. At the same time, several essays aim pointed critiques at the field for its lack of attention to race, gender, class, and sexuality; the inadequate level of diversity among its practitioners; its absence of political commitment; and its preference for research over teaching.”

Contributors: Bryan Alexander, Rafael Alvarado, Jamie “Skye” Bianco, Ian Bogost, Stephen Brier, Daniel J. Cohen, Cathy N. Davidson, Rebecca Frost Davis, Johanna Drucker, Amy E. Earhart, Charlie Edwards, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Julia Flanders, Neil Fraistat, Paul Fyfe, Michael Gavin, David Greetham, Jim Groom, Gary Hall, Mills Kelly, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Alan Liu, Elizabeth Losh, Lev Manovich, Willard McCarty, Tara McPherson, Bethany Nowviskie, Trevor Owens, William Pannapacker, Dave Parry, Stephen Ramsay, Alexander Reid, Geoffrey Rockwell, Mark L. Sample, Tom Scheinfeldt, Kathleen Marie Smith, Lisa Spiro, Patrik Svensson, Luke Waltzer, Matthew Wilkens, George H. Williams, Michael Witmore.

Publisher University of Minnesota Press, 2012
Open Access
ISBN 0816677956, 9780816677955
516 pages

Reviews: Dene Grigar (Leonardo Reviews), Jennifer Howard (Times Literary Supplement), Craig Bellamy (Digital Culture & Education).

Publisher

HTML (updated on 2019-7-25)

Sensate: A Journal for Experiments in Critical Media Practice (2012-)

Sensate is a peer-reviewed, issueless, open-access, media-based journal for the creation, presentation, and critique of innovative projects in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Its mission is to provide a scholarly and artistic forum for experiments in critical media practices that expand academic discourse by taking us beyond the margins of the printed page. Fundamental to this expansion is a re-imagining of what constitutes a work of scholarship or art.

Editors-in-Chief: Lindsey Lodhie, Peter McMurray, Joana Pimenta, and Elizabeth Watkins
Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution license

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