Politics of Nature

How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy

Bruno Latour

Translated by Catherine Porter

    Introduction: What Is to Be Done with Political Ecology?

    1. Why Political Ecology Has to Let Go of Nature

    First, Get Out of the Cave

    Ecological Crisis or Crisis of Objectivity?

    The End of Nature

    The Pitfall of "Social Representations" of Nature

    The Fragile Aid of Comparative Anthropology

    What Successor for the Bicameral Collective?

    2. How to Bring the Collective Together

    Difficulties in Convoking the Collective

    First Division: Learning to Be Circumspect with Spokespersons

    Second Division: Associations of Humans and Nonhumans

    Third Division between Humans and Nonhumans: Reality and Recalcitrance

    A More or Less Articulated Collective

    The Return to Civil Peace

    3. A New Separation of Powers

    Some Disadvantages of the Concepts of Fact and Value

    The Power to Take into Account and the Power to Put in Order

    The Collective's Two Powers of Representation

    Verifying That the Essential Guarantees Have Been Maintained

    A New Exteriority

    4. Skills for the Collective

    The Third Nature and the Quarrel between the Two "Eco" Sciences

    Contribution of the Professions to the Procedures of the Houses

    The Work of the Houses

    The Common Dwelling, the Oikos

    5. Exploring Common Worlds

    Time's Two Arrows

    The Learning Curve

    The Third Power and the Question of the State

    The Exercise of Diplomacy

    War and Peace for the Sciences

    Conclusion: What Is to Be Done? Political Ecology!

    Summary of the Argument (for Readers in a Hurry...)

    Glossary

    Notes

    Bibliography

    Index

  • Cover: Politics of Nature
  • A photo of the author

Bruno Latour is Professor at the Center for the Study of Innovation at the School of Mines, Paris.