Le Bot, Jean-Michel
Social Construction and Modes of Existence: A Reading of Bruno Latour
- 2014.
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The notion of “social construction” has had great success since the publication, in 1966, of Berger and Luckmann’s book The Social Construction of Reality. After having used the notion, Bruno Latour took some distance with it, yet remains sometimes associated with the “constructivist” current. Following Ian Hacking’s question (“the social construction of what ?”), this article interrogates the status of the “entities” which people Latour’s sociology. The article concludes by proposing that these entities are what exist for someone and make them act. Such a definition, which makes sense within a comprehensive socio-historical approach, retains the essential of Latour’s contribution. Yet it also permits that other means of existence be conceived, allowing for the institution of these entities to be grasped.