ABSTRACT
There are many reasons why the work of Gabriel Tarde might appeal to contemporary social scientists, not least his interest in the general principle of vitality that resonates so strongly with current research at the interface of the biological and the human sciences.1 And the drama of his confrontations with Durkheim are spectacular – both in terms of Tarde’s ousting from the sociological scene by the Durkheimian conceptual apparatus, and the subsequent moment of reinstatement, aided by Latour’s rhetorical prowess: Durkheim’s time is over; the concepts of ‘society’ and ‘culture’ have lost their power to energize and now appear only as spent forces – too static, too inflexible, incapable of capturing the dynamic uncertainties and destructive desires that characterize our contemporary world.
