SOCI 380 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Semiotics, Performativity
29 May 2016
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Document Summary
Foucault and butler were not mainstream within the time that they wrote. Don"t start with ant, look at smaller scale units. Latour says: what needs to be explained is associations and networks. Power (like society) -> is the final result of a process -> not a reservoir. We need to treat objects (non-humans) as a crucial part of the social world. They are associations that are in themselves social. They influence how material-semiotic networks come together to act / influence thing. Interested in the actors / actants (isn"t just humans) If you have an influence in the social field you are an actor. Say that the social science should include heterogeneous elements and non-human things. He thinks we should be very skeptical of groups already existing, being homogenous, and easily identifiable. He thinks we should look at group making. Animals, desks, etc. are all social and can have agency.
