Symmetrical sociology faced with the uprising of non-humans: The flying saucer test
Lagrange, Pierre
Symmetrical sociology faced with the uprising of non-humans: The flying saucer test - 2023.
74
Long excluded from the social sciences, non-humans were introduced into sociology in the wake of the science and technolgy studies constructed among others by Bruno Latour. This consideration of non-humans has led the discipline to change profoundly from the study of the social world to the study of associations. But instead of benefiting from this transformation, the study of beliefs, i.e. non-humans labelled as beliefs, remained linked to the asymmetric explanations developed by the sociology of the social world. Some have proposed to “take beliefs seriously”, an operation impossible to make coherent with the new symmetrical sociology of humans and non-humans. In this article I try to recall how the transition from sociology of the social world to that of associations was made to show how the analysis of beliefs, instead of trying to “take beliefs seriously”, should have symmetrized natural /scientific non-humans and “strange” non-humans (like UFOs for example). By clarifying the differences introduced by this passage from the sociology of the social world to that of associations, the article hopes to help clarify how beings of “belief” could be better studied in the context of this symmetrical sociology of associations by abandoning the division between belief and knowledge inherited from the notion of grand partage.
Symmetrical sociology faced with the uprising of non-humans: The flying saucer test - 2023.
74
Long excluded from the social sciences, non-humans were introduced into sociology in the wake of the science and technolgy studies constructed among others by Bruno Latour. This consideration of non-humans has led the discipline to change profoundly from the study of the social world to the study of associations. But instead of benefiting from this transformation, the study of beliefs, i.e. non-humans labelled as beliefs, remained linked to the asymmetric explanations developed by the sociology of the social world. Some have proposed to “take beliefs seriously”, an operation impossible to make coherent with the new symmetrical sociology of humans and non-humans. In this article I try to recall how the transition from sociology of the social world to that of associations was made to show how the analysis of beliefs, instead of trying to “take beliefs seriously”, should have symmetrized natural /scientific non-humans and “strange” non-humans (like UFOs for example). By clarifying the differences introduced by this passage from the sociology of the social world to that of associations, the article hopes to help clarify how beings of “belief” could be better studied in the context of this symmetrical sociology of associations by abandoning the division between belief and knowledge inherited from the notion of grand partage.
Réseaux sociaux