Actors, fluidity, context and Latour

Latour speaks of social theorists stating that they admit that, "society is a virtual reality." However, I wonder if that is true. I agree that what we call society is a "decaying monster" and that it does need to be rethought, but I'm not sure if it is a fiction. I argue this because I don't believe that something does NOT exist simply because it cannot be touched, felt, etc.

When Latour goes on to talk about keeping the social flat is a good way to put it. Rather than simply reassembling the social, he wants to create a new way to understanding the "very topography" of the social. He states, "As I have said earlier, action is always dislocated, articulated, delegated, translated. Thus, if any observer is faithful to the direction suggested by this overflow, she will be led away from any given interaction to some other places, other times, and other agencies that appear to have molded them into shape. This is, in fact, the act of tracing networks. However, despite his explanations I see this as being an extraordinary feat. Not only one that is complex, but one that is without end. He states later that ANT is simply that social theory which has turned "the Big Problem" of social science from a resource into a topic to solve it. But, I think it is still a "Big Topic." Perhaps I'm a pessimist and am making too much of the vastness of what Latour suggests. I don't know.

Of course, my whole point of view may have been skewered by trying to read this book while sitting on the deck of a ship. Made it more fun, though!