Politics of Nature

[ Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences Into Democracy (2004, ISBN 0-674-01289-5) is an influential book by the French theorist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour. The book is an English translation by Catherine Porter of the French book, Politiques de la nature. It is published by Harvard University Press. In the book, Latour argues for a new and better take on political ecology (not the discipline but the ecological political movem... more

[ Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences Into Democracy (2004, ISBN 0-674-01289-5) is an influential book by the French theorist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour. The book is an English translation by Catherine Porter of the French book, Politiques de la nature. It is published by Harvard University Press. In the book, Latour argues for a new and better take on political ecology (not the discipline but the ecological political movements, e.g. greens) that embraces his feeling that, "political ecology has nothing to do with nature". In fact, Latour argues that the idea of nature is unfair because it unfairly allows those engaged in political discourse to "short-circuit" discussions. Latour uses Plato's metaphor of "the cave" to describe the current role of nature and science in separating facts from values which is the role of politics and non-scientists. Building on the arguments leveled in his previous works, Latour argues that this distinction between facts and values... less