Report on Politics on Nature
-Actor Network Theory and the Nuclear Industry in Japan
IN Bruno Latour`s very winding, complex and difficult book, The Politics of Nature, a new and somewhat odd way of looking at the relationship between Nature and the people who live in this nature is presented. In this view ecology is given two separate faces of view points, that of facts and the other of values. Bruno insists that only in this way can ecology be systematically weighed and measured in a qualitative manner, not “Short Circuited” for short term political gain as is the current scenario today. As an illustrative tool, he used Plato`s Caveman metaphor to explain the problems of not separating values from facts.
One new theory which he introduced is the Actor Network Theory (ANT) which he developed with other science and technology scholars (J Law and M Callon). IN this theory he argues that things (including humans) are all related together in both a materialistic and semiotic manner, making them a network, thus functioning network hence becomes a single actor in the big picture. For example at Sophia we have teachers, students, security stuff, facilities and books, all these things are linked in a materialistic and semiotic manner, making them a network. Together they become a one single actor, but every part of the system needs to his part of the work otherwise the whole system will collapse.
Every day I spend almost 30mins browsing the internet looking at developments concerning the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. As I was reading about Actor Network Theory in Bruno Latour`s book on an article that that I had read last month came to my mind. The article was in Japan Times, and was reporting on the current common understanding that ‘lack or improper regulatory practices in the nuclear industry could be attributed to the unfolding disaster in Fukushima’.
The article argued that the too close and inter-related relationship of the regulated and the regulators in the Japanese nuclear industry led to somewhat gross negligence of duties on the part of the regulators, due to a clear and substantial conflict of interest. In the Actor Network Theory, the nuclear power industry as a network was malfunctioning and hence unable to regulate its safety practices. Just like would be the case if some students were also teachers and vice versa at any university.
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