Bruno Latour (1944-2022)
The STS Italia Board makes their condolences and expresses their sorrow for the death of Bruno Latour
With Bruno a fundamental contemporary intellectual figure passes away. His figure has been fundamental not only for STS, but for all the social sciences that challenge the boundaries between disciplines. Such challenge is not an objective to be achieved, but an essential methodological and heuristic condition. For Latour, “social” is indeed not an essence, but everything that moves from one assemblage to another. What better definition of the efforts that we as STS community lead to research and assemble networks which are heterogeneous and often seen as impermeable? For Latour, the study of science and technology is only an entry point, almost an “excuse”, to investigate the factory of our world. His research has focused on areas such as law, art, anthropology, philosophy, history, politics, organization, painting, literature, the Anthropocene and living conditions on earth. It is difficult to add new words to the many that, in recent days, have recalled his intellectual and human qualities. We therefore prefer to let Latour speak for himself, referring to a series of interviews carried out on Radio France together with another great French intellectual, François Ewald, where with clarity and intelligence Latour outlines the history and objectives of his intellectual path. A path that constitutes and will constitute a lasting inspiration for our community, in search of “a place to land”.
STS Italia Board 2022-2024
