Sophy Houdart and Olivier Thiery (eds.), Humains, non-humains. Comment repeupler les sciences socials, La Découverte, 2011
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17100
application/pdf
2038-3460
17100
1
en
Anne-Sophie Godfroy
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Sophy Houdart and Olivier Thiery (eds.), Humans and Non-Humans: How to Repopulate Social Sciences, La Découverte, 2011
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
4
Book Reviews
2013-07-12
2023-06-02
2013-07-12
2023-07-17
199-202
TS
Anne-Sophie Godfroy
2013/07/12
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17100
199
Paris-Sorbonne & CNRS
2038-3460
1
en
202
Sophy Houdart and Olivier Thiery (eds.), Humans and Non-Humans: How to Repopulate Social Sciences, La Découverte, 2011
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17100/16036
4
Book Review                                                               199
Sophy Houdart and Olivier Thiery (Eds.)
Humains, non-humains. Comment repeupler les sciences socials [Hu-
mans and Non-Humans: How to Repopulate Social Sciences]
Paris, La Découverte, 2011, pp. 368
!
Anne-Sophie Godfroy Paris-Sorbonne & CNRS
!
    According to Sophie Houdart and Olivier Thiery, editors of the vol-
ume, the aim of the book is to present a handbook of French speaking
Human and Social Studies over the last ten years. The book assumes the
heterogeneity of the various twenty-nine contributions plus six introduc-
tions to the different sections. Beyond the diversity of the presented chap-
ters, the common topic is the interactions between humans and non-
humans, with the assumption that exploring those interactions will lead
to a better understanding of human individuals and human communities.
    The purpose of the book is not to challenge the importance of inter-
human interactions, which remain an important part of social studies; ra-
ther it is to explore other relations in a heuristic way, assuming that inter-
actions with non-humans are an essential part of human interactions and
human reality. The authors explain the subtitle - How to Repopulate So-
cial Sciences - as studying humans and non-humans and exploring multi-
ple roles of non-humans in human interactions. The several contributions
seek to provide a deeper apprehension of human reality using sociological
and ethnographical methods, with a minimal ontological approach about
the nature of the non-humans. Given the variety of non-humans repre-
sented in the book, the concept of non-human is more heuristic and
methodological than ontological. In fact, the focus of the book is more on
interactions with usually neglected actors who are not human beings, than
on non-humans per se.
    The edited volume is organized around six sections, corresponding to
well-identified thematic fields in French speaking contemporary Social
Science: Nature, Public policies, Markets, Science, Art, and Gods. Each
one is opened by an introduction to present what is at stake when we try
to repopulate Social Sciences in that specific field. The perspective is
mostly empirical: the idea is to illustrate, through existing studies and
fieldwork observations, how studying human and non-human interactions
in situ can renew research perspectives. The diversity and plurality of the
various contributions are one of the objectives of the handbook. In the
presented studies, the non-humans may be animals (mollusks, cloned
cows, Thai beetles, mammoth), vegetals (sugar beet), molecules (water
molecules, virus, yeast cells), technical artifacts (Taser gun, sampler,
echography, wheelchair, disposable wipes), supernatural entities (Christ,
catholic god, genies), processes (statistics, risk management, web sites),
art works (statues, paintings, music), buildings (supermarkets or muse-
ums layouts), and so on. Interactions between humans and non-humans
200                                                          Tecnoscienza - 4(1)

are diverse: some are created by humans, others pre-existed to humans,
some are human assistants, others are source of trouble, some are visible,
others not.
    The editors also recommend transversal readings. To study controver-
sies, taking into account interactions with non-humans leads to a better
understanding of the materiality of controversies and of the values em-
bedded in the non-humans participating to the debate. To study recon-
figurations of human networks, taking into account connections, articula-
tions, adjustments, contacts, interactions with non-humans and so on, is
essential to understand the dynamics of mutations. Last example of pos-
sible transversal reading is the focus on micro level, ethnography, details,
local situations to show how the different levels and scales are articulated.
    Because of the rich content and the variety of the contributions, it is
interesting to have an overview of all presented sections.
    The first section “Nature and natural excesses” (La nature et ses dé-
bordements) is introduced by Philippe Descola. Descola claims that fo-
cusing on human and non-human interactions dissolves the traditional
dualism nature vs culture, and challenges the cosmological anthropocen-
trism that followed Eurocentrism after the 19th century. He argues that it
is urgent to “decolonize” concepts, through the analysis of human and
non-human interactions. A first way consists in considering non-humans
as a “total social fact”: the focus then becomes the system of interactions.
A second way consists in studying “quasi humans”: when material devices
become part of humans through the hybridization of human body and
technical artifact, as with wheel chairs or prostheses. The chapters pre-
sent studies on mineral water (Barbier), beetle fights in Thailand (Rennes-
son, Grimaud and Césard), an exhibition around a disappeared mam-
moth (Houdart), echography creating a new frontier of humanity (Cham-
penois-Rousseau), disabled people adapting and adapted to their wheel-
chairs (Winance), H5N1 circulation and mutations (Keck and Man-
ceron).
    Bruno Latour introduces the second section on “Doing Politics”
(Faire (de) la politique, which in French means at the same time “doing
politics” and “doing policies”). He assumes that policy (or politics) can
be object-oriented as a heuristic methodology. How to represent objects
and to make them speak if we want to take them as political subjects is
the key-issue of the following chapters, which deal with case studies as
the Taser gun (Moreau de Bellaing), pandemic risks assessment (Novem-
ber and De Conto), statistical data to represent the nation (Didier), ecol-
ogy and disposable wipes (Debourdeau) and lobbying at EU level
through public demonstrations (Rosental).
    The third section “Markets” (Passer marchés) is opened by Olivier
Favereau, who underlines the gaps of the standard economical theory
which ignores non-humans and is based on individuals as rational actors.
Studying human and non-human interactions leads to the emergence of
new descriptions and new coordination models. Mélard shows how eco-
Book Review                                                                 201
nomical relations between humans around the sugar beet are reconfig-
ured by sugar measures through polarimeter. Grandclément describes
how the architecture of the layout changed the shopping experience and,
in a way, replaced the salespersons, through the example of the first self-
service shops in 1910 in the United States. Mellet’s chapter studies the
internet job market and the way it has changed job descriptions and cre-
ated explicit mediations between the actors. Muniesa tries to understand
the role of software in the quotation process of stocks and in the agents’
strategies at the stock exchange.
    In the introduction to the section “Edges of Science” (La science en
ses confins) Sophie Houdart deals with human and non-human interac-
tions in science studies, exploring how they contribute to the building of
communities of practices and reveal the back side of science in the mak-
ing. Brives’ chapter on yeast cells culture in Petri dishes illustrates how
scientists create the yeast cells as well as the culture of the yeast cells cre-
ates yeast cells biologists, even though the cells are invisible. Lœve ex-
plores the use of metaphors in nanotechnologies. Gramaglia and Sampaio
Da Silva describe the collaboration of scientists with mollusks to assess
water pollution on the long term with a historical perspective. The lexical
study of the description of cloned animals by Rémondet unveils the evo-
lution of the debate around their existence, from ethical issues question-
ing the nature of human reproduction to the “normality” of cloned ani-
mals, later from the legitimacy of cloning experiments to risk assessment
and food security. Mialet analyses the complex interactions of Hawking,
his statue and his collaborators.
    The section “Shaking up works of art” (Le bouleversement en art) is
introduced by Antoine Hennion, who tries to show how far we can go
when we recognize the agency of the matter in the works of art. Actor-
network theory is here applied to works of art. Hénaut analyses restora-
tion of The ‘Wedding of Cana’ by Veronese and discusses how a specific
setting produces its original character where the experts interact with the
public and the matter of the painting. Yaneva describes through the set-
ting of contemporary art installations how art is finally what happens to
the participants to the on-going art installation. Vidal’s text about Mad-
ame Tussaud Museum in London emphasizes that wax figures are suc-
cessful if they abolish the frontier between human and non-human, and
allow heterotopia and heterochronia. The artistic creation is systematical-
ly undermined to allow a personal relation between the wax figure and
the spectator who travels across time and settings. Fourmentraux presents
a robot as virtual actor in theater and circus. The role of sampler in musi-
cal creation and how it has changed our perception of music and the role
of the music listener in the creation of music is analysed by Heuzé. The
section ends with Stoichita’s chapter on the interactions of the musical
sentences played by professional Gipsy musicians in Romania with the
public and the musicians.
202                                                          Tecnoscienza - 4(1)

    The last section “Living with gods” (Vivre avec des dieux), introduced
by Elisabeth Claverie, presents very interesting studies about non-humans
who are gods or spiritual entities. This gives a new perspective on reli-
gious social facts and how humans interact with gods. Albert Piette's con-
tribution on the modes of presence of god in the catholic liturgy is very
insightful: god is present and absent at the same time and gives signs of
presence through absence. “God is an hybrid, blurred and flexible, pre-
sent and absent, produced and independent at the same time” (p. 331)
writes Piette, quoting Latour. Pons describes the role of Jesus to change
social structures through Newborn Christians in the Faeroer Islands,
while Grandsard and Nathan explore the role of djinns in a study on
Muslim women’s world perception.
    It is impossible to provide many details on the twenty-nine very dif-
ferent studies presented in the book. All have in common a focus on hu-
man and non-human interactions, pay attention to non-humans and
demonstrate strongly the interest of such a heuristic approach. Although
some studies are less convincing than others, as the methodological op-
tion to study human and non-human interactions may seem heavy and
not very relevant in some cases, the overall impression is of a rich and in-
spiring handbook. When the descriptions of interactions are dense and
unfold different levels, it may be very stimulating as in studies on mineral
water, online job market or contemporary art. This approach renews and
reconfigures the different topics and may be very different from tradi-
tional sociology. Usual categories such as nature vs culture and sciences vs
politics are dissolved by the human and non-human approach. The agen-
cy of non-humans is clearly demonstrated.
    A common characteristic of all studies is the attention to singularity,
the micro level of analysis and the on-site investigation, which is fascinat-
ing. Nonetheless, it would have been helpful to provide more references
to be able to go beyond the few pages of each study. Moreover, as each
story is short, and the topics are very different, despite the insightful in-
troductions to each chapter, the book lacks sometimes of a critical global
perspective. Latour’s influence and concepts are very perceptible in the
whole book, he has even signed the introduction to one of the sections,
but his approach is never questioned or challenged. As a conclusion, the
handbook appears as a review of current French sociology but also as a
tribute to Latour – there are references to his work in almost all contribu-
tions. It illustrates the fecundity of his legacy but some more critical per-
spectives would have been useful too.
!
!
                                   ***
