The Center for the Sociology of Innovation held on October 23, 2023 a day-long tribute to Bruno Latour.
Bruno Latour has left a considerable intellectual legacy, many milestones of which he set during his twenty-five years at the CSI, where he was, in turn and in his own way, an anthropologist of science and technology, a political theologian and an investigative philosopher. During this event, members of the CSI, Bruno Latour’s companions along the way and researchers whom he has inspired or baffled will continue their conversation with his work.
The event in videos, texts, drawings and pictures
Opening of the day
Opening address by Jérôme Denis
”It is not a rewinding of the past that we are proposing… Rather, it is a walk we are going to take…”
The panels
Panel 1
Science and Technology Studies with Bruno Latour
Madeleine Akrich, Simon Schaffer, Dominique Pestre, John Law, Michel Callon
Bruno Latour’s long-time companions will reflect on the collective adventure that led to the renewal of STS.
Panel 2
After a reading of An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
Antoine Hennion, Isabelle Stengers, Didier Debaise, Bruno Karsenti, Fabian Muniesa
Bruno Latour philosopher? The speakers will continue their dialogue on science, economics, art and religion.
Panel 3
Extending questions about nature
Liliana Doganova, Kristin Asdal, François Thoreau, Noortje Marres, Brice Laurent, Béatrice Cointe & Léone-Alix Mazaud
Following the thread of Bruno Latour’s work from laboratory ethnography to Gaïa, the speakers will question ways of investigating nature.
Panel 4
Subsistance: making last, maintaining and slowing down
Clément Marquet, Roman Solé-Pomies, Jean Goizauskas & Solène Sarnowski, David Pontille & Jérôme Denis, Christelle Gramaglia, Morgan Meyer, Dominique Vinck
Investigate not only the substance of things and beings, but also their subsistance: the speakers will mobilize this maxim in discussing wine, maintenance, low tech and the figure of the attached inhabitant.
Fonds Bruno Latour – Mines Paris
This day of tribute was an occasion to associate Bruno Latour’s name with a book collection from the Ecole des mines library, hitherto known as the “STS collection”, of which he is a prime instigator. This collection has now been renamed ”Fonds Bruno Latour – Mines Paris”.
Address for the inauguration of the Fonds Bruno Latour – Mines Paris
by Alexandre Mallard
”The history of this collection, resulting from an encounter between a philosopher and the daughter of a major industrialist, will not come as a complete surprise to those who have read Bruno Latour’s book Les microbes, Guerre et Paix (Métailié, 1984) [The Pasteurization of France, Harvard University Press, 1988], dedicated to Louis Pasteur’s discoveries.”
Inauguration
by Florence Paterson and Clarisse Pradel. Scriptopolis
The history of the Fonds Bruno Latour Mines-Paris holds its share of mystery…
Let’s go to the Library and find out more →
Documentary film and photographic traces
Film “Fonds Bruno Latour. Archives municipales de Beaune”
Documentary film by Clément Foutrel and Morgan Meyer
“Photographic Traces” exhibition
by Morgan Meyer and Clément Foutrel
Contact: florence.paterson@minesparis.psl.eu