Bruno Latour - After Lockdown

1 Cover

2 Title Page After Lockdown A Metamorphosis Bruno Latour Translated by Julie Rose polity

3 Copyright Originally published in French as Où suis-je ? Leçons du confinement à l’usage des terrestres © Editions La Découverte, Paris, 2021 This English edition © Polity Press, 2021 Cet ouvrage a bénéficié du soutien du Programme d’aide à la publication de l’Institut français / This book is supported by the Institut français. Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 101 Station Landing Suite 300 Medford, MA 02155, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-5003-6 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Control Number: 2021939921 The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition. For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

4 Dedication Dedication For Lilo, son of Sarah and Robinson

5 Endorsement Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all. Job 38:18

6 1 One way of becoming a termite

7 2 Locked-down in a space that’s still pretty vast

8 3 ‘Earth’ is a proper noun

9 4 ‘Earth’ is feminine – ‘Universe’ is masculine

10 5 A whole cascade of engendering troubles

11 6 ‘Here below’ – except there is no up above

12 7 Letting the economy bob to the surface

13 8 Describing a territory – only, the right way round

14 9 The unfreezing of the landscape

15 10 Mortal bodies are piling up

16 11 The return of ethnogeneses

17 12 Some pretty strange battles

18 13 Scattering in all directions

19 14 A little further reading 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

20 End User License Agreement

1 Cover

2 Table of Contents

3 Title Page

4 Copyright

5 Dedication

6 Endorsement

7 Begin Reading

8 End User License Agreement

1 Chapter 9 Figures 1a and 1bLa Mégisserie, Saint-Junien, 1 February 2020. Launch of the ‘Où attérir ?’ ateli… Figure 2Drawing by Alexandra Arènes

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Bruno Latour

Translated by Julie Rose

polity

Originally published in French as Où suis-je ? Leçons du confinement à l’usage des terrestres © Editions La Découverte, Paris, 2021

This English edition © Polity Press, 2021

Cet ouvrage a bénéficié du soutien du Programme d’aide à la publication de l’Institut français / This book is supported by the Institut français.

Polity Press

65 Bridge Street

Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press

101 Station Landing

Suite 300

Medford, MA 02155, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-5003-6

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021939921

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

For Lilo, son of Sarah and Robinson

Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.

Job 38:18

There are many ways to begin. For instance, like a hero in a novel who wakes up after fainting and, rubbing his eyes, looking haggard, murmurs, ‘Where am I?’ It’s not easy, in fact, to tell where he is, especially now, after such a long lockdown, when he emerges into the street, face masked, to meet only the fleeting gaze of the few passersby.

The thing that especially disheartens him, no, alarms him, is that recently he has taken to gazing at the moon – it’s been full since last night – as if it were the only thing he could still contemplate without feeling uneasy. The sun? Impossible to be glad of its heat without immediately thinking of global warming. The trees swaying in the wind? He’s eaten up with the fear of seeing them dry out or go under the saw. Even with the water falling from the clouds, he has the unpleasant feeling he’s somehow responsible for seeing that it arrives: ‘You know very well it’ll soon be in short supply everywhere!’ Delight in contemplating a landscape? Don’t even think about it – here we are, responsible for every kind of pollution affecting it, so if you [