Callon, Michel

Sociologist-Philosopher French Born 1947 (age 79)

Developed actor-network theory in science studies.

376 quotes

"Identity is multiple, contingent, and continuously performed."
Philosophy
"The margins and peripheries are often more interesting than the centers."
Imagination
"We must learn to trace the multiple paths through which knowledge travels."
Knowledge
"Power operates not only through domination but through association and alliance."
Power
"The construction of markets involves both economic and moral reasoning."
Success
"We are all responsible for the networks we create and maintain."
Kindness
"Stability is always provisional and requires continuous work to maintain."
Perseverance
"The study of science is the study of how order is constructed and maintained."
Science
"We must embrace the messiness and complexity of social life."
Philosophy
"Innovation is not a heroic individual achievement but a collective endeavor."
Creativity
"The economy emerges through the translation and coordination of diverse interests."
Work
"The market is not a given social reality, but something that must be constructed"
"We must learn to see networks as the fundamental structure of reality"
Science
"Translation is the art of making the invisible visible"
Philosophy
"Actors are not simply subjects or objects, but participants in a continuous process of becoming"
Philosophy
"Nature is not separate from society; they co-produce each other"
Nature
"The strength of weak ties lies in their ability to bridge different worlds"
Relationships
"Innovation happens at the intersection of heterogeneous elements"
Creativity
"To understand technology is to understand the society that shapes it"
Technology
"Power flows through networks, not hierarchies alone"
Power
"Entities do not exist independently; they emerge through their relations"
Philosophy
"We are all implicated in the networks we study"
Knowledge
"The boundary between nature and culture is constantly being redrawn"
Science
"Responsibility emerges from our entanglement with others"
"Markets are moral and political achievements, not natural phenomena"
Philosophy
"To trace a network is to understand the distribution of agency"
Knowledge
"Failure teaches us more than success about how worlds are made"
Wisdom
"The excluded middle is where the real work of translation occurs"
Philosophy
"We must become comfortable with ambiguity and multiplicity"
Wisdom
"Every connection remakes the entities it connects"
Relationships