Cette thèse porte sur l’ultimatum qu’impose le phénomène de changement climatique à la société occidentale contemporaine : changer de modèle de société ou risquer l’effondrement (Diamonds,2006). L’épreuve majeure qui s’impose serait celle d’habiter autrement la Terre, autour d’un autre projet : celui de la lutte contre le changement climatique. De nombreuses publications (Aykut,2012 ; Dahan, 2015 ; Latour, 2015 ; Roques, 2013 ; Stengers, 2009) décrivent l’incapacité des institutions étatiques à construire un projet commun pour répondre aux enjeux climatiques. Dans cette affaire, les études « critiques » relèvent la place importante qu’a prise la simulation au détriment de l’action concrète et pérenne. Modélisations climatiques, simulations politiques et économiques, diagnostics sociologiques, fictions littéraires, le changement climatique est largement investi par le récit. Nos immersions de terrain ont montré que d’autres échelles de l’action s’emparaient déjà activement de l’affaire climatique. Villes et entreprises sont, en effet, de plus en plus nombreuses à prendre position dans la problématique énergie-climat. Il s’ensuit que certains énoncés, par leur position de médiateurs, avaient cédé la place à des expérimentations concrètes. Adoptant une démarche pragmatique, inspirée de l’Enquête sur les modes d’existence, proposée par Latour, et enrichie par le modèle des Économies de la Grandeur de Boltanski et Thévenot, cette thèse tente de décrire les divers modes d’existence de la problématique climatique auprès de collectifs territoriaux. Par ailleurs, nous faisons l’hypothèse de l’influence d’arrières plans culturels et d’intérêts passionnés dans la production de stratégies climatiques par des acteurs locaux. / This thesis focuses on the ultimatum imposed by the climate change phenomenon in contemporary Western society : changing the model of society or risk collapse (Diamonds, 2006). The major ordealt hat is required was that of otherwise inhabit the Earth around another project : the fight against climate change. Many publications (Aykut, 2012 ; Dahan, 2015 ; Latour, 2015 ; Roques, 2013 ;Stengers, 2009) describe the inability of state institutions to build a common project to respond to climate challenges. In this situation, the "critical" studies note the important place that has taken the simulation at the expense of concrete and sustainable action. Climate modelling, political and economic simulations, sociological diagnoses, literary fiction, climate change is largely invested by the narrative. Our field immersions have shown that other scales of action are already actively seized ofthe climate deal. Cities and businesses are in fact more likely to take a position in the energy and climate challenge. It follows that some statements, by their position mediators had given way to concrete experiments. Taking a pragmatic approach, inspired by the l’Enquête sur les modes d’existence proposed by Latour, and enriched by the model of Économies de la Grandeur of Boltanski and Thevenot, this thesis attempts to describe the various modes of existence of the climate problem from territorial collectives. We also assuming the rear of influence cultural plans and attachments in producing climate strategies by local actors.

While Skagboys portrays the descent into heroin addiction of young, working class Scots during the Thatcher era, shifting the analysis from a strictly human perspective to one focusing on the agency of objects opens up the novel to new readings wherein morality emerges through nonhuman actors. Welsh’s work has traditionally been hailed as Scottish working-class realism that portrays its characters unideologically, to the point that the novels, through the characters, appear without morality. Drawing upon Latour’s notion of Actor-Network Theory, ANT, reveals a Thatcherite materiality permeating the story, prescribing the moral behaviour which the characters of Skagboys repeatedly clash with as their heroin addiction and junk desperation grows. The impacts of the security camera, the smoke detector and the collection tin provide the basis for the analysis. This highlights two types of marginalization for the characters. Firstly, in the characters’ hopeless prospects with regards to employment due to Thatcher’s neoliberal politics, and secondly as objects of detection and control exerting agency in the world which the characters navigate. These objects presuppose and foil crime, effectively becoming extensions of Thatcherite morality, keeping the criminal and unemployed in check.

Homebirth as Actor-Network: Multiple realities The topic of this medical anthropology thesis is a description of homebirth seen through the eyes of Actor-Network Theory. The focus of this work is thus not on the professional concept of homebirth as a biological process or soon-to-be-mothers experience and take on homebirth. Focus is on homebirth in itself, how it is enacted via interactions of actors in network. After the presentation of two points of view on medicine (disease and illness), an introduction into the basic principles and innovations of ANT (including anthropology of symmetry), into the works of people, who build their ideas on it (Mol - multiplicity, De Laet - fluidity, Law) and the presentation of the current birthing situation in the Czech Republic, the thesis shifts its focus to the description of the whole actor-network, which enacts homebirth via interaction between the actors in practice. These practices are abstracted from the interviews with mothers, a dula and a paediatrician. The description includes people and objects, because according to ANT, they have the same amount of social agency. Homebirth is then enacted by the objects needed for homebirth - tools to make birth easier and to support its process, by people who partake, venues it takes place in and the birthing positions it...

This thesis explores an alternative method of making Architecture based on ideas presented by Bruno Latour in “Give me a gun and I will make all buildings move” and concepts discussed by Peter Eisenman within “Diagram: An Original Scene of Writing.” The static nature of representation within Euclidian Space requires a re-evaluation of the generative qualities inherent within diagrams. Managed through an identified mechanism, the thesis investigates the excavation of potential within Pretoria Central’s lost spaces by generating programme, response and resolution from elements inherent in the diachronic context. / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

Homebirth as Actor-Network: Multiple realities The topic of this medical anthropology thesis is a description of homebirth seen through the eyes of Actor-Network Theory. The focus of this work is thus not on the professional concept of homebirth as a biological process or soon-to-be-mothers experience and take on homebirth. Focus is on homebirth in itself, how it is enacted in practice. After the presentation of two points of view on medicine (disease and illness), an introduction into the basic principles and innovations of ANT (including anthropology of symmetry) and works of people, who build their ideas on it (Mol - multiplicity, De Laet - fluidity, Law), the thesis shifts its focus to the description of the whole actor- network, which enacts homebirth via interaction between the actors in practice. These practices are abstracted from the interviews with mothers, a dula and a paediatrician. The description includes people and objects, because according to ANT, they have the same amount of social agency. Homebirth is then enacted by the objects needed for homebirth - tools to make birth easier and to support its process, by people who partake, venues it takes place and the birthing positions it brings. Another part of the actor-network can be found before the homebirth happens - the hunt for information...

This study documents the problematic translator-publisher relationship in the case of the English translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe. The socio-historical investigation of the case study demonstrates that the 1953 translation was complicated by several factors: the translator’s lack of philosophical knowledge, the editor’s demands to cut and simplify the text, the publisher’s intention to emphasize the book’s scientific cachet, and Beauvoir’s lack of cooperation. The investigation focuses on two aspects: the translator’s subservience and the involvement of multiple actors. Primarily concerned with the interaction between the translator and other actors, this study seeks answers that require investigation into historical documents and the work of other scholars critical of The Second Sex. In this enquiry, more than one hundred letters between the translator, H. M. Parshley, and the publisher, Knopf, are thoroughly analyzed. The study combines Bruno Latour’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts in order to provide a more detailed and encompassing examination within the context of Translation Studies. The letter correspondence is the primary evidence on which the study’s conclusions are based. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

This thesis explores how hope in relation to the threats to the earth’s biosphere can be formulated theologically. The starting-point is a questioning of hope raised by the French sociologist and anthropologist Bruno Latour. In Facing Gaia. Eight Lectures on the New Climatic Regime (2015) he asks why so little has happened to reduce the emissions of CO2. Parts of his answers relate to the view that hope is preventing action. Since hope is a central part of Christian doctrine, this study lets Latours scepticism meet some eco-theological litterature, mainly representing evangelical, orthodox and radical material theology, and religious naturalism. Since critic against eschatology is important in Latours explanatory model, this theme is discussed together with the possibilities of the church practices of liturgy and eucharistic celebration, especially in relation to the concept of time and space, the latter elaborated by the radical material theologian Petra Carlsson Redell. Although putting different emphasis on an ultimate eschatological hope, all authors stress the importance of acting now. The evangelical authors Daniel Brunner et al. present a strategy “living as if”, practicing restoration of the Earth here and now. In religious naturalism the hope lies in the common biological ground for all humanity and living things, also leading to a caring ethics. In general, relationality and materiality as well as including marginalized voices are important concepts when the authors are formulating environmental ethics and eco-theology.  The concept of hope is shown to be important to define, in order to sort out especially false hope from a possibly fruitful concept: resilient hope. A resilient hope is grounded in Christian discipleship, is adaptive and able to recover. It is in a reciprocal relation to action. To develop a resilient hope I argue that it is important to allow both desperation and hope, since the free moving between the two “poles” can act liberating and enable action. A resilient hope gives space for scepticism since it is grounded in a reality always on the move. It is open for emergence and construction. Christianity has resources to house the space between hope and despair both in central biblical narratives and in bodily practices as liturgy and eucharist. Resilient hope in this thesis is earthbound, withstands being lost, and arises again and again in search for new constructive possibilities.

This thesis explores Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1986-87 comic book series Watchmen according to its network structure, paying particular attention to page layout and the establishment of or deviation from the nine-panel "waffle iron" grid. This reading aims to better understand the comic book form, connecting the work of comics theorist Theirry Groensteen to certain elements of actor-network theory and Ian Bogost's notion of the ontograph--a map of being that emphasizes the interobjectivity of networked nodes. This thesis explores the ontographic nature of the comic book form more generally before tracing the meta-textual ontograph in Watchmen. The thesis then examines the network within the single panel, the multi-panel page layout, and the collaborative network of artist and author. Finally, this thesis explores how Watchmen as an ontograph exploits the affordances of the comic book form in order to construct creative temporalities.

Notre travail de recherche explore de manière comparée le développement du neuromarketing aux Etats-Unis et en France. Nous commençons par analyser la littérature sur le neuromarketing. Nous utilisons comme cadre théorique et méthodologique l’Actor Network Theory (ANT) ou Théorie de l’Acteur-Réseau (dans le sillage des travaux de Bruno Latour et Michel Callon). Nous montrons ainsi comment des actants « humains et non-humains »: acteurs-réseaux, traces (publications) et controverses forment les piliers d’une nouvelle discipline telle que le neuromarketing. Notre approche hybride « qualitative-quantitative », nous permet de construire une méthodologie appliquée de l’ANT: analyse bibliométrique (Publish Or Perish), text mining, clustering et analyse sémantique de la littérature scientifique et web du neuromarketing. A partir de ces résultats, nous construisons des cartographies, sous forme de graphes en réseau (Gephi) qui révèlent les interrelations et les associations entre acteurs, traces et controverses autour du neuromarketing. / Our research explores the comparative development of neuromarketing between the United States and France. We start by analyzing the literature on neuromarketing. We use as theoretical and methodological framework the Actor Network Theory (ANT) (in the wake of the work of Bruno Latour and Michel Callon). We show how “human and non-human” entities (“actants”): actor-network, traces (publications) and controversies form the pillars of a new discipline such as the neuromarketing. Our hybrid approach “qualitative-quantitative” allows us to build an applied methodology of the ANT: bibliometric analysis (Publish Or Perish), text mining, clustering and semantic analysis of the scientific literature and web of the neuromarketing. From these results, we build data visualizations, mapping of network graphs (Gephi) that reveal the interrelations and associations between actors, traces and controversies about neuromarketing.

In this thesis I explore the place of the human in the Anthropocene, and our relationship to the Earth through an analysis of N. K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy. As the trilogy depicts an apocalyptic landscape where the Earth has sentience and humanity is divided into three subspecies, this work of speculative fiction lends itself well to be interrogated and examined as an allegory for our current climate crisis. The analysis is anchored in posthumanism and employs a variety of concepts, such as Bruno Latour’s work on agency and deanimation, Donna Haraway’s Chthulucene, and Amitav Ghosh’s work on speculative fiction among others. I argue that The Broken Earth trilogy illustrates that the Earth is an agentive network that can no longer be ignored and contend that the trilogy complicates both anthropocentrism and individualism by depicting amplified versions of human beings, and in doing so highlights the arbitrary boundaries between both nature and society, and human and nonhuman. Thus, The Broken Earth trilogy can be read as a warning call for a future to be avoided at all costs, while concurrently be used to make sense of the incomprehensibility of our contemporary era.