There's no such thing as society! Bruno Latour's 'our younger brothers', social studies on science and ethical involvement

The present text discuses selected theses of Bruno Latour's book 'Reassembling the Social. An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory', intended as a systematic introduction to the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). ANT is an extremely philosophically innovative concept, rooted in a tradition, more than thirty years old now, of so-called social studies on science which can be defined as a current within non-classical sociology of knowledge. ANT is presented as an alternative social metatheory, or, a specific methodology. The authoress rejects a hyposthasis of (the) Society, which has been preventing social sciences from an adequate recognition of several mechanisms, particularly those characteristic to a global risk society. The essay highlights that ANT is not yet another version of a social constructivism. For the co-author of this position, it is important that it be empirical as well, and that social sciences appreciate the role of objects, things, referred to as 'our younger brothers'.