Callon

Incidentally, Nick refers to Michel Callon in his lecture. For those who don’t know, Callon was Latour’s colleague at the Ecole des mines in Paris for many years (Latour moved to Sciences-Po a few years ago). Callon, Latour, and John Law are often cited as the major figures of ANT, and in fact I think Callon himself is credited with the actual phrase “actor-network theory.”

I don’t actually know Callon’s work that well. But I will say that I saw him speak for the first time at Latour’s Cerisy week in 2007, and was very impressed. Callon is one of the few people who can pull off a speaking style that is powerfully loud and assertive without seeming like an opinionated bully. It seems instead like passion and seriousness. You get the definite feeling that he’s approachable with objections.