The Return of Material: “Spaces”, “Networks”, “Flows” in Actor-Network Theory

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to a neo-Leibnitzian reconceptualization of spatiality in current sociological theory. The material turn, one of the most significant events of XX – XXI sociology, has dramatically altered the very agenda of sociological thinking in 1990s and keeps on strengthening its influence on social theorizing. Alongside the revision of basic ontological and epistemological assumptions, it brought back the category of “space” neglected for a long time in social thought. However, two major theoretical projects in current actor-network theory (“social topology” by John Law and “sociology of materiality” by Bruno Latour) suggest two different strategies for rehabilitation of “space”. Analyzing the return of the material object in social theory and its hidden conceptual implications, the author compares these two strategies, their axiomatic assumptions, basic metaphors and philosophical resources.