ABSTRACT
Technology plays an important role in social and organizational life, and this role is becoming more and more significant. Bruno Latour, born in 1947, is a French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher, who has studied processes leading to the development, application and impact of science and technology in societies. Bruno Latour started his scholarly career with an analysis of work processes in a laboratory for neuroendocrinology in California. He hit on the idea of examining the practices in the lab in the same way he had conducted an earlier study during his military service in Ivory Coast in West Africa, one of France's former colonies. Ages ago the capability to defend oneself started with engineering and constructing castles, fortifications, canals and cities that could resist long sieges. Military engineering, architecture and construction preceded civilian engineering. The development of unmanned devices is being pushed ahead by 'all the relevant people who are convinced'.
