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With his concept of association, Bruno Latour founds his symmetry principle in a relativistic and pluralist sociological conception of society as networked actors. Social reality is a mixture of heterogeneous humans and non-humans, and their associations lead to a collectivity. The unpredictability of associations is directly connected with the heterogeneity of the associated elements and the associations themselves. Associations are not necessarily planned, even if the actors/actants act strategically. Because associations are unforeseeable, new combinations of associations can occur at any time unexpectedly; and consequently, they lead to inequality between constituted associations, in other words, to asymmetries. Associations are at the heart of the networks that represent society as a relational and movable reality.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-66005-9_9

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