Science Studies and the Metamorphic Multiple Earth: Bruno Latour’s Risky Diplomacy

Abstract

This essay focuses on Bruno Latour’s recent attempts to study the metamorphic zone of terrestrial life, within the current climate crisis and environmental “cosmocolossus.” I explore his proposal for a risky diplomacy in the Anthropocene “end times,” as a way of dealing with the increasingly tense relations between polarized and weaponized perspectives. I show how his work continues to seek a form of scientific practice that involves the invention of equipment (apparatus) that make perceptible (principally to humans) the existence of nonhuman agencies, thereby expanding the opportunities for alliances and a pluralist ecology, and ultimately assembling another more-than-human political body. I also discuss critiques and concerns regarding the specifics of this proposal.