Bruno Latour - The Affects of Capitalism

The Royal Academy Lecture in the Humanities and Social Sciences
On Wednesday 26 February 2014, the French Professor in Sociology, Bruno Latour, gave a lecture at the Royal Library, The Black Diamant.
The Affects of Capitalism
Through the work of science studies applied to the peculiar discipline of economics, a very innovative view of the ways in which the "economic infrastructure" affects people has been proposed. However, it is not always clear in what way it modifies the older ideas of capitalism and the distribution of political positions that have been generated by such concept. The lecture will illustrate this new view by showing the place of Economics in modern anthropology, and which redefinition of politics it entails.
Professor of anthropology and President of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Kirsten Hastrup, writes about the speaker:
Bruno Latour has been one of the most influential thinkers in the social sciences, broadly defined, since his early work on Laboratory Life (co-authored with Steve Woolgar, 1986). In the plethora of works that have appeared since then, Latour has consistently challenged established categories and scientific complacency and encouraged social scientists to study connections and networks rather than boundaries and entities. Travelling freely in the intellectual landscape between philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and science and technology studies, Latour has invited his readers to take a fresh view of the world, and to transcend dominant categorical oppositions, such as modern/non-modern, culture/nature, human/non-human.

[@SeekersofUnity]

Lecture begins at 12:49

[@YM-cw8so]

jeez the intro is that long

[@zoxeme]

The presentation was great, but the Carlsberg plug at the end... weird, made me wander if i was dreaming.

[@KENDRIK]

Hola, latino here. Can anyone translate the whole video? I think hispanic people need to hear this. I mean... no entiendo bien, si no lo traduciría yo. Pero sería cool que alguien le pusiera subtítulos en español, no sé, solo decía

[@philipconway6790]

Was the Q&A session recorded?

[@MsMidooox]

Please, can someone spell the name of the scholar he referenced in 40:12.

[@donmidwest5803]

Don Midwest I listened several times and could not figure it out. I did a couple of searches and could not find the name. Sorry.

[@jostenmyburgh109]

Dipesh Chakrabarty

[@MsMidooox]

Josten Myburgh Thanks a lot!!

[@MsMidooox]

Don Midwest No Problem, someone got the answer XD.

[@wyleong4326]

Yay!

[@kastaway2]

Affects or Effects? Thank you.

[@abhirajgoswami1048]

Affect. Its a defined philosophical concept in critical theory.

[@tenajyebba]

Sublime thinker.

[@solvictor3390]

Seria possível alguém traduzir o texto desse vídeo para Português?

[@solvictor3390]

legendas em português

[@stephen0793]

Isn't Latour saying we should go beyond the capitalist vs. anti-capitalist paradigm?

[@axelsprangare2579]

Yes.

[@nicholastaylor9398]

Yes. He also proposes a model beyond the Nationalist - Globalist dichotomy. Think of that as being one side of a triangle. The other apex is true Sustainability. He argues, optimistically, that people have become disillusioned with both Nationalism and Globalism, certainly the latter anyway, though when one looks at Russia, Hungary and MAGA, and even China and India, it is difficult to see the demise of Nationalism.

[@marcoantino2920]

0:15

[@jeancarlosvy]

Vine por Diego

[@KENDRIK]

Me too, pero no domino mucho el inglés y no entiendo el video

[@guajolotl]

CAPITALISM. Except that capitalism IS evil. FIRST, the system is unplanned and unstable, This anarchy of production cannot reconciliate the social character of production and the private confiscation of production, and thus makes the recurring crises inevitable.(stock market crashes) SECOND. It is an asymmetrical system, that is, the chasing after wealth produces the concentration and centralization of capital and the wealth of the society in a few hands. THIRD. The global economy is market oriented and nationalist, and requires military protection to function globally (endless wars). FOURTH. The transnational corporations exclude all the citizens of the world community, who have no say so in their decisions, and do not satisfy the needs of the population. FIFTH. The development and use of resources of the first world is simply ecologically unsustainable. The corporations are incapable of reducing their mad dash for ever greater wealth and usurpation of more and more resources. The way they use the law of value is incompatible with a democratic, equal and sustainable global society, stable for everyone.

[@blahdolphinjsjsjs3818]

Soo what do you suggest

[@axelsprangare2579]

Social capitalism solves these problems not communism.

[@gabrielagarciavera9971]

pase por aqui por que lo aconsejo Diego Ruzzarin...alguien mas?

[@Blubberbeest]

What was the 10th thesis? "Back to Earth, you (???)"

[@Blubberbeest]

Just found this document which I think is roughly the same text as this lecture www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/136-AFFECTS-OF-K-COPENHAGUE.pdf But there he writes 'Back to Earth, you Earthlings' which is clearly not what he is saying in the lecture

[@guitonparis]

@@Blubberbeest Thanks so much for that. You should put has a standalone comment!

[@RogierMaaskant]

he could be saying back to earth you dareans

[@inotoyepthomi]

Can someone please summarise the 1 Hour lecture

[@g.torrance628]

You can find the text here

[@donmidwest5803]

@@g.torrance628 can you give link again. It doesn't show up

[@g.torrance628]

@@donmidwest5803 just get rid of the spaces

[@KevinMurrayAustral]

Thanks for providing this. It's a wonderful talk, even though I cringe through the Australian references. However, Latour's flat structure doesn't seem to really engage with the expansive nature of capitalism which he defined as its key affect. Latour makes unbridled capitalism seem like a category error, rather than something connected to the emotion of hope.

[@monsteroflogic]

May I ask what you mean by "category error" in this case?

[@KevinMurrayAustral]

I use 'category error' to refer to the way capitalism cannot take into account its limits. Rather than seeing this as a logical fault, I think it could be seen in relation to human desire and fantasy of future abundance.

[@theonetheonly3933]

"justice" is only an idea, it can never be applied in reality. "justice" in human society is only how much satisfaction society produces/achieves over the communal reactive treatment on an individual member of the society who has committed an unacceptable action. but all our actions and reactions in society are deeply prejudiced. "justice" is meaningless in the reality of any society. "capitalism" is based on injustice.

[@sville0513]

Nearly an hour of bashing capitalism funded by capitalism through the Carlsberg Foundation. The irony is too rich.

[@payasofo5342]

your gayness is too rich

[@aristakelso5655]

@@payasofo5342 homophobic

[@felipecagorago]

The old "you criticize capitalism but you own things" type of argument, classic one

[@tomasinfante1355]

Zzzzzz

[@alwaysask]

"Helplessness"? It's just simple fact-observing that free market economy (i.e. what Marx - the irony... - called "Capitalism") is the best economic system the human race has ever developed, even with its flaws.

[@johnleidzen3728]

Ill reply with the same coin. No its not!

[@grandetrujilloivan956]

There's no such think as a free market economy

[@Julian-df2pj]

You're eating from the trash can of ideology my guy

[@pslopez7]

effects*

[@fourclaws]

*affects

[@agushoebill]

@@fourclaws why?