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
Author
Publisher (FR)
Publisher (EN)

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.

Sam Mbah, I.E. Igariwey: African Anarchism: The History of A Movement (1997)

The first book ever written on this subject, African Anarchism was co-written by Sam Mbah and fellow Nigerian, I.E. Igariway. After dealing with questions such as what anarchism is and isn’t, this groundbreaking book introduces the reader to anarchistic elements in traditional African societies, with a focus on Nigeria. It also examines the influence of anarchism on African national liberation struggles, and the failure of State Socialist governments in Africa. The book addresses the ongoing social, economic and political crises caused by colonialism in Africa. The authors end by considering the future prospects and challenges for anarchism in Africa.

Publisher See Sharp Press, Tucson, Arizona, 1997
ISBN 1884365051, 9781884365058
119 pages
via libcom.org

interview with Sam Mbah (March 2012)
Sam Mbah’s blog

PDF
PDF (2001 Edition from The Anarchist Library, multiple formats)

Michel Serres: The Parasite (1980–)

“Michel Serres’s foundational work uses fable to explore how human relations are identical to that of the parasite to the host body. Among Serres’s arguments is that by being pests, minor groups can become major players in public dialogue—creating diversity and complexity vital to human life and thought.”

Originally published as Le Parasite, Grasset, 1980.

Translated, with notes, by Lawrence R. Schehr
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1982
ISBN 0801824567, 9780801824562
255 pages

PDF (updated on 2019-6-5)