Science in Action

A coherent and powerful framework for research…Science in Action will have an impact comparable to Thomas Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions both as a provocation to philosophers and as an inspiration to sociologists and historians of science. -- Nicholas Jardine * Times Literary Supplement *
If Kuhn hit the first home run, then Latour set new records for homers, with bases loaded. Latour’s image of a living science, constantly in motion and advancing through attack and counterattack, gripped the imagination of a generation of STS analysts. His playful encounters with the inanimate, mechanical, and written instruments of science remain eye-opening…His sprightly rules of method have acquired near-axiomatic status. -- Sheila Jasanoff * Social Studies of Science *
Bruno Latour delights some of us and infuriates others, but either way he has, for the past decade, been one of the most brilliant and original writers about science…[Science in Action] is an incredibly rich resource of examples put to creative uses…The book makes us think about all the bashful silences that so affect anglophone philosophy of science. -- Ian Hacking * Philosophy of Science *
This account of science as composed of drifting, recombining networks is presented with considerable charm and humour. There are many brief case histories to enliven the text, and the book works very well as a guide through scientific reasoning. -- Steven Yearley * Nature *
Much as physicists reduced biology to the molecular level, Latour and his colleagues in the social constructivist school of science studies are attempting something even more audacious, the reduction of all scientific disciplines to the principles of rhetoric…Whether one accepts or rejects Latour’s perspective, Science in Action is an important book. -- Henry Etztkowitz * Science *
Reading [Science in Action] was tantamount to a paradigm shift...Latour’s work didn’t correspond to anything I had studied before; it swept the ground from beneath my feet, creating as much discomfort as it did pleasure. I was forced to reassess everything that I thought I knew about science. -- Hélène Mialet * Social Studies of Science *
Latour’s Science in Action is a ‘must read’ for all sociologists, not just because the sociology of science is a dynamic and growing subdiscipline, but more importantly because Latour’s thesis challenges the notions that underlie sociologists’ efforts to distinguish our field as a ‘science’…Latour’s thesis is that science, including sociology, is collective action and that facticity is a consequence, not a cause, of collective action…An excellent and enjoyable introduction to the sociology of science. -- Joan H. Fujimura * Contemporary Sociology *
There has never been a programme for research in the social studies of science that has been presented in such a systematic and integrated way…Latour’s book will receive, and it deserves to receive, the closest and most widespread attention…Some readers of a nervous disposition may feel uneasy about Latour’s dare-devil theorizing, squeamish about his book’s over-weening ambition and the cosmic scope of his schemata. This would be wrong: we need many more workers in our field who cast their nets as widely as Latour. -- Steven Shapin * Social Studies of Science *
There is a wealth of material and some titillating insight into discoveries beginning with the framed race to find the structure of DNA—the double helix—and in Latour’s hands, it becomes a true cliffhanger…This [book] will reward those who want to probe science and the modern world in depth. * Kirkus Reviews *
This book argues that science is a social activity… The message is important… The book is convincing and informative. -- Kenneth P. Ruscio * Science Books & Films *