Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory

As far as theory goes this is one of the more readable ones. Having not read his previous works, I wasn't able to follow all of his references, but he goes through everything in such a friendly and reasonable tone that I could hardly accuse him of name-dropping. I only wish for more examples - the ones he did provide were incredibly helpful and a sign of genius. Revolutionary but in some ways basic - a very good read.

There was nothing really objectionable in this approach to social science, but nothing that felt all that revolutionary, either. I couldn't help wondering if Latour was fighting a straw man.

A few notes:

Defines "social" as "a movement during a process of assembling" (1), "a very peculiar movement of re-association and reassembling" (7).

Groups are not a priori set to be studied, but rather form and reform and dismantle in contradictory ways (29).

Objects have agency, in that the "modify a state of affairs by making a difference" —they are actors (71).