The Pasteurization of France

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The Pasteurization of France
AuthorBruno Latour
Original titleLes Microbes: guerre et paix
TranslatorAlan Sheridan & John Law
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
PublisherA.M. Métallié, Harvard University Press (English edition)
Publication date
January 1984
Published in English
1988
Pages281 (first edition)

The Pasteurization of France (Les Microbes: guerre et paix suivi de Irréductions) is a book by Bruno Latour published in 1984 by A.M. Métaillié, with an English translation by Alan Sheridan and John Law published in 1988 by Harvard University Press. The book provides an account of the adoption and attribution of Louis Pasteur's on microbes by the French medical establishment as a case study for an early version of actor-network theory, arguing the adoptions of Pasteur's discoveries were contingent on their utility to the potential adopters.

Summary[edit]

The Pasteurization of France is split into two sections: the first section ("War and Peace") is a history of the development and adoption of Pasteur's germ theory while the second ("Irreductions") is a theoretical work, structured into numbered clauses and elaborations, which presents an early version of actor-network theory.

Guerre et Paix[edit]

Latour begins by contesting that, in explaining the history of the science should not be explained as merely the product of "science" or "social forces". He states he provides an explanation of Pasteur's rise to prominence without resorting to "social forces", appealing to technical details, and using only the language provided by the work studied. Beginning an analogy which will continue throughout this half, Latour likens Louis Pasteur to Napoleon in Tolstoy's War and Peace: not a "great man" whose actions shape history, but someone to whom responsibility for the achievements of others are attributed after the fact. Throughout this section, Latour relies on the contents of three periodicals contemporary to Pasteur's work: Revue Scientifique, Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, and Concours Médical.

Though reading the Revue Scientifique, Latour traces the adoption of Pasteur's germ theory by hygenicists, who he argues adopt Pasteur's theories not because they are true but because they serve the hygenicists' goals by organizing, simplifying, and triaging the countless individual hygenic practices they had developed. Latour generalizes this to argue for a sociology of associations, and that action is accomplished through the enrolment of other self-interested parties by making their goals align with your own. Critically, Latour argues that this is true for both human and non-human parties, treating Pasteur's manipulations of microbes in the lab as a means of recruiting them to carry out his tests and demonstrations. Latour walks through several more accounts for the history of Pasteur's work to demonstrate this principle, including how Pasteur moves through different disciplines of study throughout his work to build his reputation among different groups, how the laboratory is used as an environment where scientists can manipulate objects of study into proving their theories, and how publications serve to attribute to Pasteur the works of the entire Pasteur institute.

In the third chapter, Latour examines the differences in uptake of Pasteur's work between military and civilian doctors. While the former are eager to use Pasteur's work to reduce illness and death among soldiers to improve their military might, the contagiousness of patients suggested by germ theory raises concerns for private doctors, due to the conflict between patient confidentiality and a requirement to report illness to public health authorities. Latour shows that it is only once germ theory makes itself useful to private doctors in the form of diagnostics and vaccines that these clinicians have cause to adopt germ theory into their practices.

In a brief passage between the two halves of the book, Latour argues that there is no separation between "science" and "society". Returning to his initial claim that he would account for Pasteur's rise in the terms of the era without resorting to social or technical explanations, he contests that no explanation can wholly avoid appealing to power relations, but that his account is no more or less valid than others. Latour closes by explicitly drawing a distinction between his own project and the sociology of scientific knowledge.

Irréductions[edit]

This second half consists of a series of aphorisms, interspersed with commentaries and longer interludes, universalizing the arguments made in the first half of the book.

Latour asserts absolute irreducibility of all things and that disputes are resolved by "tests of strength" based on who can speak for more actants. Any given event is the result of a translation of action through individual actors, and responsibility can only be claimed after the fact. Thus "power" is an illusion produced by this process of attribution, and there are no relations but relations of force.

Latour touches on several arguments which he would expand on in later works, namely the lack of distinction between science and society (in Science in Action) and that modernity has never existing (in We Have Never Been Modern).

Editions[edit]

Originally published in French in 1984, an English translation by Alan Sheridan and John Law was released in 1988 as a companion piece to Latour 1987 book Science in Action.[1][2] The English translation was considered well-executed,[3][4] though Simon Schaffer considered some passages to be tactically altered for the English audience.[5]

List of Editions[edit]

  • Les microbes: guerre et paix suivi de Irréductions (1984). A.M. Métaillié ISBN 286424300
  • The Pasteurization of France. (1988) Harvard University Press. Hardcover. Translated by Alan Sheridan and John Law. ISBN 0674657608
  • The Pasteurization of France. (1993) Harvard University Press. Paperback. Translated by Alan Sheridan and John Law. ISBN 0674657616
  • Pasteur: guerre et paix des microbes; suivi de Irréductions (2001). Découverte. ISBN 9782707170118

Reception[edit]

Reviews of The Pasteurization of France disagreed regarding both the style and substance of Latour's book, with multiple reviewers describing it as controversial.[6][7]

Latour's writing style (as translated by Law and Sheridan) drew many remarks, both positive and negative. Gary B. Ferngren credited Latour with "a penchant for the striking aphorism"[8] while Harry W. Paul described Irréductions as "dazzling"[7], but Rosalind Williams warned that "Latour speaks a strange and foreign tongue"[3] and Elan Daniel Louis found the book "Often muddled and obscure" and "difficult to follow".[9] Beyond academic circles, The Economist described the book as "... often amusing, and sometimes bizarre".[10]

Within history of science journals Latour's unorthodox approach drew critique for ignoring established methodologies. Latour's choice to examine only three periodicals (characterized by John Forrester as "bold and blinkered")[11] was seen by some as overly limiting,[12] not consideration for the material surrounding these journals.[13] Further, Jacques Léonard took issue with using each of these source texts to imagine hygenicists and doctors separately when these professions had considerable overlap.[14] Steven Shapin suggested that those seeking "a definitive account of Pasteur's research and its institutionalization" turn instead to Gerald Lynn Geison's forthcoming book (The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, released seven years after Shapin's review).[2][15]

As the beginning of Latour's writing on actor-network theory and his divergence from the strong programme of sociology of scientific knowledge,[16] The Pasteurization of France drew considerable strongly negative reactions from several. Karin Knorr-Cetina argued that Latour's theory of power was tautological: if others can only be recruited in line with their own interests and victory is achieved through recruitment, what is in their interests can only be determined after the fact (dependent on whether they were recruited).[17] Knorr-Cetina also criticized Latour's theory of being Macchiavellian, and unable to account for unexpected or accidental outcomes. Simon Schaffer was deeply critical of Latour's equivalence of human and non-human actors, contending that the approach was not symmetric as Latour argued, and that "Hylozoism stifles an account of laboratory life."[5] Evan Melhado levelled a similar critique of the explanatory potency of Latour's approach, stating that it was wholly dependent on existing accounts of the same events.[18]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ La Berge, Ann F. (1990). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". The American Historical Review. 95 (4): 1215–1216 – via JSTOR.
  2. ^ a b Shapin, Steve (November 17, 1988). "Renown in theory". Nature. 336 (17): 281–282.
  3. ^ a b Williams, Rosalind (Spring 1989). "Science as a power systems". Issues in Science and Technology. 5 (3): 104–106 – via JSTOR.
  4. ^ Risse, Guenter B. (1989). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". JAMA. 262 (17): 2452–2453.
  5. ^ a b Schaffer, Simon (March 1, 1991). "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Bruno Latour". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. 22 (1): 174–92.
  6. ^ Hemmings, Mary (1989). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". Library Journal. 114 (2): 80 – via EBSCOhost.
  7. ^ a b Paul, Harry W. (July 1990). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". American Journal of Sociology. 96 (1): 232–234.
  8. ^ Ferngren, Gary B. (1989). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". The New England Journal of Medicine. 320 (15): 1017.
  9. ^ Louis, Elan Daniel (January 1, 1989). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 62 (1): 47–48.
  10. ^ "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". The Economist. 309 (7577). November 1988.
  11. ^ Forrester, John (December 1, 1984). "Essay Review: The Pasteurization of France: Les Microbes. Guerre et Paix, suivi de Irréductions". History of Science. 22 (4): 425–427.
  12. ^ Vernon, Keith (1990). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". The British Journal for the History of Science. 23 (3).
  13. ^ Wilson, Lindsay (1990). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". Journal of Social History. 23 (4): 861–63.
  14. ^ Léonard, Jacques (1985). "Le microbes. Guerre et Paix, suivi de Irréductions (Comptes Rendus)". Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (in French). 40 (1): 166–167 – via JSTOR. N'est-il pas imprudent de réduire l'hygiénisme à la Review scientifique, en négligeant ses organes habituels, les Annales d'Hygiène publique et la Revue d'Hygiène et de Police sanitaire? Pourquoi opposer rigoureusement les hygiénistes et les praticiens, alors qu'on sait que presque tous les hygiénistes sont médecines, exerçant ou enseignant leur "art", et que les praticiens de la médecine courante sont engagés, depuis longtemps, dans des fonctions rétribuées (médecin des épidémies, vaccinateur, inspection des enfant assistés, application de al loi Roussel...) ou dans les tâches non rétribuées (conseils d'hygiène et de salubrité, commission des logements insalubres...) qu'implique déjà l'hygiénisme prépasteurien?
  15. ^ Geison, Gerald L. (1995). The Private Science of Louis Pasteur (1st ed.). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691034427.
  16. ^ Hacking, Ian (1992). "Philosophy of Science". Philosophy of Science. 59 (3): 510–512 – via JSTOR. "As Latour put it in this, his first foray into actantism, there are more of us than we thought." and "I shall say no more about Les microbes except to add that it serves to make a vivid contrast between Latour's project and work deriving from the Edinburgh strong program in the sociology of knowledge."
  17. ^ Knorr-Cetine, Karin (1985). "Review: Germ Warfare". Social Studies of Science. 15 (3): 577–586 – via JSTOR.
  18. ^ Melhado, Evan M. (June 1992). "The Pasteurization of France (Book Review)". Isis. 83 (2): 369–371 – via JSTOR.
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