Decay in the Biographical Sense: Distancing from Actor-Network Theory

Abstract

My book Immaterialism: Objects and Social Theory (2016) presents the case study of the "Dutch East India Company" with the purpose of coming up with an alternative set of rules to those established by Actor-Network Theory for social analysis. It is interesting to note that Bruno Latour's negative reaction to my book is mainly directed at the metaphorical use of the concept of "decadence". What seems to bother Latour most is that such a concept is a "biological" metaphor, which no historian could take seriously, therefore, it would not serve to discuss nobiological objects. In this article I develop the metaphor of decadence in its connection with a specific social object in order to show that its supposed "biological" sense derives rather from a deep biographical sense not considered in his objections.