Transportnye mediatsii: formy mashinnogo i materialy chelovecheskogo

Abstract

This article responds to the discussion on the turn to the material that has recently unfolded among Russian social science scholars. One of the central topics in this discussion is the legacy and significance of the actor-network theory for anthropology. The author attempts to articulate the method of Bruno Latour as a key figure in this theory. He argues that the actor-network theory, at least in Latour’s version, is not so much a “turn to the material” as what could be rather called a “materiological turn”. Drawing on Latour’s concepts of “form” and “matter”, the article offers a materiological (re)description of the urban public transport as exemplified in a number of Russian and North American historical and contemporary cases. The author further ponders about the significance of materiological turn for anthropology.