Nonhumans

Definition

Nonhumans, in Latour's actor-network theory, are the nonhuman actants — objects, animals, technologies, regulations, materials — that participate in social life as actively as humans do. Against the humanist assumption that only humans have agency, Latour's "principle of symmetry" requires taking "position in the middle of events, paying attention to both humans and nonhumans simultaneously." For architecture, this is a decisive shift: a building is not the product of a human designer imposed on passive matter, but an assemblage in which steel, concrete, building codes, climate, and users all act. The nonhuman turn grounds architecture's engagement with the agency of materials, the "spacing" of built environments, and the recognition that buildings "facilitate the production of social relations" (Yaneva) as much as they are produced by them.

Key Thinkers

• Bruno Latour — nonhumans as active participants; the principle of symmetry.
• Albena Yaneva — nonhumans in architecture: the socio-technical study of design.

Related Concepts

• Hybrids — the mixtures of humans and nonhumans that modernity denied.
• Actor-Network Theory (ANT) — the method that follows nonhuman actants.
• Posthumanism — the philosophical current that de-centers the human.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Latour for Architects — nonhumans as active participants in social life.